Aparita

The Toronto Star, [04/03/2002]

 

Mangoes, I’d sigh.
On hot summer school-afternoons in Delhi, my sister and I would slowly trudge home in the suffocating heat.

Once home, we’d take a quick bath and collapse on the cool cement floors. Watching the fan whirring giddily, scooping gusts of hot air in the room, we’d think of all the things we liked about summer.
Ice cold baths. Slake-your-thirst-drinks. Frozen treats from the food-franchise Nirulas.

And mangoes.

Mango is one of the most popular tropical fruits and has been cultivated in India since at least 2000 BC. The Indian mango, mangifera indica, is the descendant of a wild tree still found in northeast India.

It’s said the Chinese traveller, Hwen T’sang, who visited India in the 1st century AD, first made mango known outside India. He used the name an-mo-lo, a phonetical twist on the Sanskrit amra.

By the 10th century AD cultivation of mangifera indica had spread as far west as Persia (now Iran), where it stopped. From south India, the Portuguese took it to Africa in the 16th century. It reached Brazil and the West Indies in the 18th century, and Hawaii, Florida, and Mexico in the 19th century.

Although large numbers of mangoes are now grown across the globe, India remains the world’s largest producer, not only meeting the demands of an international market, but also the high domestic one.

The beginnings of the relentless summers in Delhi see vendors with portable carts full of mangoes lining vegetable markets, bus stops, or any busy intersection. Swatting away flies with a piece of cloth otherwise perched on their shoulders and sprinkling droplets of water on the fruit to cool it, they coax passers-by to buy their wares.

It doesn’t take much persuasion to buy a kilo or two of mangoes. But mango buying can become quite complicated. More than 500 named varieties (some say 1,000) have evolved in India. It’s said the Mughal emperor Akbar loved mangoes so much he had a mango orchard with a million varieties of the fruit planted over 200 years ago. The orchard is called Lakh (million) Bagh (garden).

Even with a dozen varieties to choose from in our neighbourhood vegetable market in Delhi, it would take a fine balance to satisfy each family member’s palate.

My sister and I, for instance, love dussheri. This variety is known for it’s elongated shape and bright yellow to orange hued skin. When sliced, it yields a supple orange flesh, lightly fragrant and sweet.
My grandfather always hankers for langda, known for its round shape with a beak-like end and green skin. This mango yields a yellow flesh that’s stringy and sweet. My father’s favourite is chausa, a yellow-skinned mango, which is extremely sweet.

Then are others who swear by the alphonso variety grown in the state of Maharashtra and one of the most expensive varieties of mango. I remember my aunt carting crates of the fruit from Mumbai to Delhi to distribute among family and friends when she would visit during summer vacation.

There were many ways we consumed mangoes. Eating them is a messy but satisfying affair.

My favourite way was to suck the flesh out of a small incision at “the mouth” - the top - of the fruit. But mango milkshakes were also divine and simple to make.

Perfect summer quenchers.
De-skin the mango, cut into chunks. Pour milk, sugar and the chunks into a blender. Blend. Add lots of ice and serve the frothy drink in tall glasses.

Other than serving gourmet pleasures, mango figures in other aspects of Indian life.

Hindu epics such as the Ramayana and Mahabharata are replete with references to mangoes. The mango tree is often depicted as the kalpvriksha, or the wish-granting tree, in Indian literature.
Even Buddha is said to have favoured a mango grove as a resting place during his travels.

Mango leaves are an integral part of Hindu rituals and religious ceremonies, and are festooned on doorways. Mango blossoms are used to worship Saraswati, the Indian goddess of learning.

The mango motif is a popular one, recurring in Indian architecture, textiles and other art forms, even if stringing mango leaves has given way to stringing lights at the doorway due to lack of availability.

Torontonians can still enjoy the fruit imported from nearby warmer climes. Of course, you don’t quite get mangoes like the Indian varieties. The closest matches, in terms of appearances and tastes, can be found in Indian grocery stores or Chinatown.

In Indian grocery stores, cartons marked alphonso mangoes can be found. The ones I have seen aren’t the alphonsos I remember, but are definitely sweeter than other locally available varieties.

The ones I have bought from Chinatown are reminiscent of the smooth flesh of a dussheri mango.

Cans of alphonso mango pulp are also available in Indian grocery and speciality stores and are often used to make mango milkshakes, yoghurt lassis and other desserts.

Ah, mangoes.

I’m sighing again, just at the thought of them.

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