The Mango Season by Amulya Malladi

Finished this book day before yesterday . Its about a girl Priya Rao who is from a typical Telugu Brahmin family ,who left India when she was 20 to US to study and now after 7 years she returns to India . She is returning with the news about her engagement to guy names Nick ,an American. The time she returns to India is the Mango Season ,hence the title . The story revolves around Priya ,her flashback into her childhood ,her orthodox grandparents ,her parents wanting her to get married to an 'Indian Boy', relatives , how Priya reveals about Nick to her family ,how her family reacts and Hyderabad. A well written book i must say .It even had some recipes in between the chapters .
It was the title 'The Mango Season' which caught my attention ..an off beat title.. very unusual..

Mango - The king of fruits is one the favorite fruits of many of us in India including me . There are so many variety of mangoes i have eaten in my Granny's house that i can't even remember their names. My mom can smell the Mango and identify which variety Mango it is . I could never do it . For me Vacation meant Granny's house and Granny's house meant 'Mangoes' ..So Vacation time was 'Mango Season' for me.

Eating Raw Mangoes ....When i used to be small (big enough to climb mango trees) , i used to go to the Mango orchard but before we could go to the Mango Orchard there were few things we used to carry ,a Knife to cut mangoes , a paste of Salt , chilli powder and oil ( I tell you ,it tastes great !!!!) packed in a piece of Banana Leaf and again wrapped in a newspaper so that the oil won't leak out ,a bottle of water and a towel to wipe all the sweat :) !!! You got to work hard to eat fresh Raw Mangoes :o) . We used to take the back doors to hide from the toddlers who would want to follow us ,but the problem was after walking a certain distance they would get tired and then we had to carry them so we used to avoid taking them :o) ..I know ..How mean of us !!!!

'Totapuri' (a variety of Mango) is very famous for eating it raw , it is not very sour , its a mixture or sweet and sour . Some of us used to climb the trees , some waiting directly under the mango to catch once it falls down ..we also used to take a long stick which is fork shaped at the end and a small gunny bag is attached so that the mango drops directly in that instead of falling down (How clever ;-) !!! ) .And if you forget the to take the knife ,search for a sharp edged stone and hit the raw mango on that to break it into pieces ..

Mango Pickles ..... The one thing whose existence is a must in our house . Like the variety of Mangoes i have eaten same goes for the pickles also . Some pickles are made by boiling the Mangoes in Salt water, some without boiling them and there are others which are made by drying the mangoes ..there are others wherein the whole mango is put (not big mangoes ,a smaller version ). My granny always told me how much pickles she used to put earlier but now she is not able to do so because of her old age. She would ask me to put pickle also .....Hmmmm.. ....putting pickle is not easy as writing a Software program ;o) !!!!

Dried Mangoes ....As if it was not enough to eat Mangoes in the mango season ,we dry the ripe mangoes so that when it is not Mango season we can relish the dried mangoes. A pulp of dozen of ripe mangoes in which a pinch of salt is added is spread on a plastic sheet and made to dry in the sun. Once one layer is dried , one more layer is spread on top of that , likewise at least 10 layers are put to make it thick and it is made sure that they are dried in the sun . I remember times that we used to run to the terrace and eat pieces of this dried mango pulp even before it was dried. So there were times when the initial rectangle or square shape in which the pulp was laid would end in an arbitrary map :o) and aunties knew whom to blame ;o) !!!

Mangoes at Lunch : There used to be fights for the mango seed during the lunch time between us cousins and granny would end up saying " When i used to be a kid i used to pick up so many mangoes and carry the basketful of mangoes ,Why don't you kids go and pluck some mangoes from the tree?" . As usual we would hear what granny said from one ear and let it go through the other ear ..

Sweet Mangoes , Sour Mangoes ,Mango stains on the dress , stomach ache after eating lot of raw mangoes ,getting hurt while climbing the mango tree , being happy for getting mango seed , crying for not getting the bigger mango piece , competing while picking up the mangoes under the mango trees ..Mango memories :o) !!!!!!!


My next read is going to be SERVING CRAZY WITH CURRY .