Every shop is stacked with crates and crates of them, and people everywhere slice and slurp their way to mango ecstasy. Mangoes are the most consumed fresh fruit in the world! Our love for this fruit is evident in its prevalence in folklore and anecdotes. Cutting across space and time, the mango makes its presence felt with myriad names that tell juicy tales.
Known for its sweet smell, and even sweeter taste, mangoes are a perfect fruit for a romantic interlude. Its nostalgic reminiscing the good old days when kids tried to sneak in and steal the fruit and couples would romance each other under the trees.
Come summer and the beautiful mango tree is in fragrant bloom with promise of rich rewards of ripe succulent mangoes. The ‘koyal’ (cuckoo) whose summer abode is the mango tree, sings in her shrill voice everyday. The first thing which comes to everyone’s mind in this season is the mangoes, the king of fruits. Those ripe juicy mangoes in different shapes and sizes which make everyone’s mouth water.
A visit to an orchard is a magical sight for any kid. The charming flowers of mango trees are with delightful thick buds, and they are overly swilled by tipsy honeybees with slow breezes flurrying and tilting their delicate leaflets. Delightful are the branches of mango trees that are laden with bunches of coppery tender leaves, and with just flowered flowers, and with their heads a little bent down.
After some time trees and trees laden with the fruit in vibrant shades of green and yellow is a sight to behold. After a long wait (or so it seems) they would be served in all their golden glory, plump, juicy and begging to be eaten. As strong winds start blowing children would run from one mango tree to other collecting fresh mangoes that would keep falling all day. It is just like a mango shower.
Almost every child growing up remembers climbing mango trees or aiming a slingshot at a neighbour's tree laden with fruit; some even have battle scars to show, bruises received from tumbling down branches or being chased by an irate gardener.
The tantalizing fruit turned even ethical kids into mango-thieves, furtively picking up the fallen fruit. There remain only a sorry few people who haven’t managed to try to climb a mango tree to steal some fruit, or take aim with stones to knock down some mangoes from a neighbor’s tree, only to hit the neighbor’s window instead, and then make a desperate run to escape the neighbour’s wrath.
People’s mango preferences depend on mood and moment. The first batch of juicy fruit is generally eaten sliced. By the second or third week everyone begins to hanker for a change, so in comes different forms of desserts. As time progresses this mangoes are then used to make breakfast or teatime treats. When the sweetness has gotten overwhelming for even a staunch mango lover, spicy relishes would be introduced in the meals.
And there have been few other fruits that have captivated the hearts, minds and tongues of the majority of the world’s population. It has a universal appeal and grows from ground level to an altitude of 5000 feet. This fruit of the Maharajas, Badshahs, Kings and Viceroys, has always been the fruit of the common man as well.
In India, Mangoes have been cultivated in India from time immemorial and are found in plenty during the summer season with over 100 varieties of mangoes, in different sizes, shapes and colours. There must be as many types of mangoes in India as there are languages.
Each region has its own unique breed of mango, and regional pride insists that their mango is better than their neighbors’ mango. The perfumed Alphonsos, the green Dasheharis, the parrot beaked Totapuris, the orange beauty Baiganpalli, the succulent Chausas and the golden skinned Langdas, gleaming in their jewel tones - red, yellow and dark green with their own distinct aromas.
The mango is no ordinary fruit; Mangoes happen to be native to the subcontinent, and over the millennia have woven themselves intricately in to life and culture. The Mango tree plays a sacred role in India. A string of mango-leaves are tied across doorways, as an auspicious symbol on auspicious and religious occasions, and are included into many of the associated rituals. This fruit is very much a part of our festivals and the songs we sing.
Jewelers design intricate ornaments (earrings or necklaces) with mango designs. The mango leaf or fruit is a common design found on mangalsutras that wives wear. The beautiful mango is the inspiration for the ageless Indian motif, the ambi that weaves its way into sarees and other textiles. Wedding feasts aren’t complete without mango chutney or pickle. The tree and its fruit are symbols of fertility and abundance, love and devotion and some believe that the Mango tree can even grant wishes.
Mangoes are a short lived fruit. Many Indians have found a better way to taste it throughout the year. Green unripe mangoes are pickled in many different ways, to be drawn out in other months, to be relished.
To bite into a mango and get that sweet, sticky juice squirting all over your chin and clothes is to drift back into blissful childhood, into days that seemed to have no beginning and no end. Life then was in the here and now, and there was great joy in being alive in the blazing sun, in close friendships, in whiling away hours doing absolutely, gloriously, nothing.
The mango still has such a magnetic hold on today’s generation. It is so much more than a mere fruit. It represents a rite of passage, a time of giddy childhood, of endless summer days and life stretched into infinity - an unending field of gold, an abundant orchard of luscious mangoes dangling from countless shady trees…
...and to quench your mango thirst out of some juicy ripe mangoes visit here.
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