Episode 208 : The house of mangoes

I just finished a mango.

A large, almost ripe mango. One that I did not have to share with anyone else.

Well, I do not have a room mate nor did I have a guest at 12.15 in the morning, so that bit about not sharing has to be mentioned.

Returning to the topic, I had a large mango all by myself. The act of cutting out the slices was not as pleasurable as the act of biting into, licking and nibbling them.

The taste of sweet mango with the sharp taste of raw mango as you grate away at the seed brings back memories of a ten-year old Hyde's summer vacations in Kerala.

A group of cousins, mostly older than me, we raided the room where mangoes were neatly arranged on a bed of straw. Ostensibly to help them ripen, but I was sure they were kept like that so that one could easily choose which mango should be eaten that afternoon.

So after each one of us selected a large mango (large for our hands), we sneaked out of the house and to a cool area shaded from the afternoon sun... while elders enjoyed their post-meal siesta. There is a story about raiding the jaggery store too, but that is for another day.

After slurping and smearing our faces with bits of mango pulp, we then planned our evening activities. I don't think the elders ever minded us raiding the mango store. Maybe because they understood that children will be children, or maybe they had too many ripe mangoes and knew we could be counted upon to help them out in their times of need.

The evening activity was almost always the same. Play a game of cricket and then "retire" to pluck raw mangoes, cut them into thin slices and eat them with chili powder and salt.

The very thought of cutting raw mango and having the slices with chili powder and salt causes an onslaught of drool that I am unable to stop...

The old days always bring a wave of nostalgia. I cannot imagine my cousins and I sneaking into a mango store and raid the place. Or climb trees to pluck raw mangoes. For one, we are a lot older than we want to believe, and secondly there is a generation that we have to set an example for.

Misfortune.

What do I care for misfortune when there are ways to circumvent it?

I shall go to the store and buy some more mangoes later this week. For tomorrow, there is another large ripe mango in the refrigerator.