01 May 2010

Mangoes

The smell of Odonil fills our city homes. At this time of the year, I remember vividly, our home in the village used to fill up with the heady smell of luscious, ripe mangoes. We didn’t have too many mango trees in our land then. The ones we had were still very small. So we used to ‘hire’ a tree for a month from our neighbor’s land. This was way back in the late 80’s and early 90’s. If my memory serves me right, it used to cost Rs 300. All the mangoes during that time were ours. We used to keep it in a big basket & eat nearly 5-6 in a single day, the juice flowing down our hands. Ummaa!! The little joys of life.

In South Canara, we make this spicy sweet thing from mangoes by mixing green chilies, salt and the mashed pulp of ripe, juicy mangoes. It tastes so yummy!! I used to savor my lunch on the days we had this special, ‘quick’ dish. It had no particular name. It was simply called “maavinannu gojju”.

I had a Gujarati friend, Nina, in Mangalore. I was working as a Lecturer in the University & I used to home tutor her for the languages. It was in their home that I tasted the famous Gujju “aam ras”, the sweet dish they make from mangoes & have for lunch. It’s so good!

When I see the fruit laden carts on the road, I feel nostalgic thinking about the trees in our village house – especially mango, jackfruit & perley(guava). I was very attached to these trees because on them I could climb, play, jump, eat, study, and hide! You couldn’t do all this on a coconut or tamarind tree. They were too straight & big for my little feet. I hated ‘gaali mara’(acasia tree). My father used to beat us with the thin branch of this tree. It was worse than ‘bettha’(stick used to beat).

I would have loved my daughter to grow up in a village. Like I did from class 4 right up to my post-graduation. Village life does something wonderful to your psyche.

11 comments:

  1. Just today afternoon,my husband brought me this mango and asked me to suck the juices out from a small hole.It was so yummy.I too have memories on a mango tree.One year I ate so many mangoes coz I was new to mango trees,that I was covered with pus boils from head to toe from eating too many.heheh..The doctor asked to lay off it.Gosh! those were some days.U made me remember our first home in india back the 90s.

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  2. Ahhhh, this post just reminded me of the mangoes when they are rarely available in the market. Lol... Tomorrow I am definitely gonna search and buy some to eat :)


    By the way, here is my IndiVine post. Check it and if you like it then please Promote it too there on IndiVine.

    http://www.indiblogger.in/indipost.php?post=72607

    Thanks :)

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  3. @Suzaan: childhood memories are so sweet. back in those days.....

    @Shaan: haha thank u :)

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  4. Very nice...the desi mango has become an endangered species..

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  5. @Satish: haha guess so...Glad u liked the post Sir

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  6. @Rajendra: thank you
    looks like you've read almost all of my posts!
    i cant thank you enough :)

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  7. I love mangoes too. Truly the king of fruits :)

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  8. You just took me back to my childhood days. I used to go to my granny's house during vacations thrice a year. And there were huge mango and jackfruit trees and I used to climb them and get the fruits and we all used to eat them in the evening. :) Very true.. village life gives us unique memories and pleasures.

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    1. ya Raj i miss them sometimes - the playing, the silly jokes we would crack, all that messy eating & giggling! and the trees - who would have realized then that they would be such an integral part of our childhood. When i see Tanvi playing with "ready-made" toys, it gives me an ache

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