NAVI MUMBAI: As summer heats up, residents are looking towards the monsoon with anticipation and dismay. While the rains will bring much-needed relief from the rising mercury, it will also take away the city’s favourite drink — neera. Neera sellers across the city have started telling customers that they are winding up business for the season.

“During this summer it has become a kind of a routine for my colleagues and I to have a glass of chilled neera from these stalls before heading to work. They all charge Rs 10 per glass, so there is no question of it being an expensive guilty pleasure,” said Harish Malvade, a resident of Nerul.

Several residents said that they often took a drive on Sion-Panvel highway for neera. “There are around 10 stalls within a kilometer. I can’t get enough,” said Ankit Shukla, a Vashi resident.

Every neera shop, on an average, stocks a can of 20 litres, which is around a 100 glasses. Most stores run out of the drink before evening,

“I will have to shut down once the rain comes as the supply will stop. I usually do odd jobs until the summer,” said a neera stall attendant.

Some residents are still not ready to bid the cold juice a bittersweet goodbye. “Until the day they all close for business, I’ll keep coming back for more,” said Shukla.

