Tis the mango season

What is it about the mango season. As the summer arrives in India, the heat, the harsh sun,  thirst and dryness take over, to be only relinquished by the advent of the juicy and luscious mangoes. Mango, the king of fruits is a novelty celebrated across the country with mass mango festivals, crates of it sold in the market and of course the buzzing export business taking mangoes to the world. The 100s of varieties make for a tough competition and the national debate continues as to which one is the best. Safeda, totapuri, langda, chausa and the legendary alphanso appear in our dreams, their smell driving us mad as if the summer heat was not enough. 

While the best way to relish the mango is to let it cool in the flowing river water, then take off the skin with your teeth, sucking off the skin until only the seed is left and with only the juice shining on your chin. There are many dishes to satisfy our taste buds and appetites, also to be savoured and preserved for other seasons as pickles, jams, aam papad, aam Ras or chutney. 

And behind all this madness, standing quietly in the courtyard of every childhood home is a giant mango tree. This tree has witnessed the climbing competitions, the pebble and catapult aiming for the prize, the birds getting their share despite the keen eyed maali, the anticipating eyes and salivating tongues of kids as they wait for the almost ripe mango to drop. Witnessing the summer holidays when the real childhood happened and gave us tales to tell when we grow up. 

Prove me wrong if you didn’t have a memory of a mango tree in your grandparents home where you spent hours during summer holidays. Playing cricket under it or practicing your pellet gun or bow arrow. I remember the period of lovely white flowers and how quickly they became into ambi, the most famous embroidery pattern in the Indian design saga. If we keep a story contest on the real experiences of people with Mango 🥭 , I bet it will be bigger epic than the Mahabharata. 

And don’t get me started how mango forms part of the Mahabharata tales, there are versions where Gandhari eats mangoes and in others Draupadi. While apple is the forbidden fruit in bible, if there is one true forbidden fruit then it’s THE mango, weakening many a damsels hearts and resolves of merry men. Katrina Kaif’s slice advertisement has been so popular that it increased the tourism to its shooting location - Orchha. That my friend is the magic of mangoes. 

Just google Mango and you will find multiple books and folk tales around the one theme - the royal fruit. I have myself read few of these - all based in Indian sub continent, the hub of mangoes. Each of them having their own unique taste like that of a mango variety. Some tangy, some exploding, some nostalgic but all delicious! Do explore these.. in fact I can’t wait to coin the mango genre of books.. 

Enough talk about mangoes, now I feel like eating one or many while the season lasts. Happy mango season!