Mangoes

I was lying in shavaasana after finishing my routine. I opened my eyes slowly and saw the window and its bars. The lime green curtain was all huddled at one end. Through the bars, I saw the strong trunk of the mango tree and its varicose branches and leaves. The white sky peeped from beyond. The leaves were all still like in a painting, occasionally moving with a wisp of breeze. I was just gazing at the leaves, out of the blue, green mangoes in clusters appeared here and there. (What was left after the vagrant boys raided our backyard) A squirrel was doing acrobatics on the branches. Babblers were flitting from one branch to another. A row of red ants were marching by. Can’t wait for the mangoes to get ripened. Who does not love mangoes? My favourite is Imampasand followed by Banganapalli. Somehow over hyped Alphonsa's ridiculous rates put me off. But what we get locally is only Neelams and fibrous ones most of the times.

There were days in dad's times, when i have devoured 20 mangoes in a single day. Mangoes form the holy trinity (mukkani) in fruits - the other two being treacly jack-fruit and bananas. Yay… mangoes!

Types of Mangoes in India

Pongal Holidays 2016 update:
Apple caused the downfall of adam-eve. A lemon in 1 feet culvert caused the downfall of mom. So i was stepping out of home, walking long distances for vegetables. After i plucked indravalli and Avaram poo leaves for mom's slightly sprained leg, my that day's favourite pulicha keerai was not there in shop, so came back empty handed with just ginger and curry corriander leaves.
 
But when i hit the bed, was really thankful to God for life's small small pleasures. In December January, raw mango rates are exorbitant. Yesterday, was suddenly craving to eat something tangy and in the absence of gongura, had prepared to make Karunai kilangu puli kolambu (suvarna gadde/elephant foot yam). During Christmas, New Year holidays had seen couple of raw mangoes hanging high up there. Though ayurveda states, don't eat out of season fruits, when it comes to mango, all rules are worth breaking. Mom had a long pole with a u-shaped hook which she could use it from ground. To use it on terrace, she used another tiny stick with handle to pull the long pole from ground floor. For lunch, i climbed up, pulled the long pole, using the smaller hooked stick and then to my surprise, found a mango lying neatly on the terrace. I need not have pulled the pole at all, for the tree had provided a tangy mango just when i was craving for one. Was so gleeful and mentally thanked the tree and stepped down.

Yummy mango thokku

Indravalli parantha, ven pongal, vendaika poriyal. Outer cups: Moong dal kheer, Mango thokku, Moong sAmbhar, Curd