27 Aug 2012
Just can't help thinking of you guys when I am savouring these delicious and sugary sweet (..and very very expensive) Chausa mangoes – in season these past two weeks! They crazily give you a high – and even though I feel I can and want to eat a hundred of them at one sitting, can hardly finish just one because of the concentrated goodness of every thinkable kind all squeezed into one single mango.
Last week I bought 2kgs of humongously large Chausa from a passing rehriwala in front of the house at Rs.40 a kilo and got only four – thought I was on top of the world when they turned out to be juicy, sugary and delicious. But this week, bought six smaller ones weighing a little over 2kgs at double of last week's price at Rs.80 a kilo – and OMG…. The first one has shot me through the roof. What wonderful taste, what wonderful feeling…. Truly, I miss y'all my loved ones, like never before!
The mango season in India this year was delayed by two weeks due to adverse weather conditions – perhaps due to the impact of Cyclone Thane on mango season in southern India. (Its not uncommon to read Mango-related weather articles, which are often alarmist — hailstorms kill mango trees! Cold weather kills mangoes!) The quality this year was reportedly good. Prices are higher not only due to late emergence but also due to higher demand than last year. Since Indian mangoes are unique in taste and very fragrant, the demand is always high irrespective of the prices.
Mangoes are objects of envy, love and rivalry as well as a new status symbol for India's neo-riche. Mangoes have even been tools of diplomacy. The allure is foremost about the taste but also about anticipation and uncertainty: Many believe India has only two seasons: monsoon and mango. Monsoon season replenishes India's soil. Mango season, more than a few literary types have suggested, helps replenish India's soul. Unfortunately the Mango season here lasts only about 100 days, traditionally from late March through June; it is vulnerable to weather; and usually brings some sort of mango crisis, real or imagined.
India annually produces about 15 million tons of mangoes, roughly 40 percent of global production. Between 40 and 60 varieties are sold commercially - samples of different mango varieties are preserved by government research institutes to protect against extinction.
Reporting on India's mango mania, an article in the New York Times rightly sums up: Almost every state in India has its own mango jingoism; if love of mangoes is nearly universal for Indians, so is disagreement over which variety is best – the people being fiercely parochial about mangoes. For most southerners and those from the west-coast of India it is the Aapus or Alphonso (a product of the Konkan belt), considered far superior to the Safeda, Dussheri, Langda and the Chausa – which make their appearance in that order in north-Indian markets.
While Europeans have learnt to appreciate the Indian Mango, one pities the Americans who for some reason seem to have no taste buds at all…. Their supermarkets have only the Mexican varieties, like Ataulfo and Haden— large and plump, just insipid heavy pulp and utterly tasteless with no fragrance.
The allure and nostalgia of mango season for Indians worldwide is undeniable. Some Indians living abroad fly home for a visit during mango season. Generations of Indians still recall their mothers warning that eating too many mangoes can bring outbreaks of pimples. It is not uncommon for the up and coming younger generations to want to know: "How can a person safely gorge on mangoes without breaking out in pimples?"
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