I vividly remember how
afternoon siesta was snipped short every day in the summer to chase the mango
thieves.
The huge mango tree was the pride of our
backyard. We were intensely possessive of our prized mango tree.
The tree had dared to grow
with us in the face of adversity when our garden was just barren land and huge
rocks.
It was the seed of a mango that Baba had
sucked dry and flung into the far corner of the garden. Determinedly green
fingered, Maa had given it its place of pride in the middle of our backyard and
nurtured it into this massive tree.
It vied with us for her
affection and we were often jealous. In summer when the branches were weighed
down with mangoes however, we were compelled to love it just as much.
There was a lot of competition
for the mangoes.
The parrots were the first
ones to discover the mangoes. They greedily gobbled up the juicy bits and let the
rest plunk messily on to the courtyard floor.
This did not go down well
with us kids and we immediately commissioned Vishwanath our handy man to
salvage some mangoes for us.
The raw mangoes would be
lovingly turned into chutneys and murrabbas by Maa. The ripe ones would go to Pahlwan
our fruit vendor to be further ripened and sweetened by his own secret
techniques.
The evenings would then be
excited trips to friend’s houses to give them their share of the booty.
Finally one day Vishwanath
would give up and say he had had enough of climbing the tree and plucking and
throwing mangoes into bed sheets eagerly spanning the courtyard beneath him.
That was when the thieves were invited in.
My parents would call in the
boys hanging on the trees along the road side and let them loose on all the
remaining mangoes. Their squeals and smiles were the stuff that would inspire
fairy tales.
Then the dear tree would go
back to its quiet undisturbed existence for the next year and give us just its
loving shade.
Mango chutney
This is an instant chutney
made of mangoes that are falling off the trees right now. They are not ripe
enough to be enjoyed as such but they are not raw enough for the real chutneys
either.
They are somewhere on their
way to being ripe and the pulp is yellow but not sweet.
1.
Take a mango and
grate it. Don’t grate it too fine – a coarse grating is better as it gives the
chutney a texture
2.
Put this in a
bowl.
3.
Add 2 tablespoons
of sugar, ¼ tsp of red chilli powder and a tiny pinch of salt to this and mix
4.
Taste it.
5.
Add a repeat of
any of the already added ingredients as per taste
Store
it in the fridge for up to 3 days
Get ready to lick up the
whole mouth watering bowl with an eye squeezed tightly shut.
This picture was taken from our bed room window. It shows our mango tree peeping into our room
This picture was taken from our bed room window. It shows our mango tree peeping into our room
