Thursday, June 14, 2007

Mango Mania


Of a dozen things I miss (of India) living in USA,the summer season evokes all the wafty,aphrodisiac(y) smell of Mangoes.Malgoa,Alphonso,Banganapalli ..oh my Gawd!!Juicy is all I can recollect.Today a colleague shared a mango(what?? Sharing MANGOES!!!..crazeee!!!) from Puerto Rico.It was delish.


Back in my school days we used to have a Rumani Mango tree.Summers were fun..Trying to keep the kids from throwing stones was a constant task for my Mom and dad..and they were pretty hyper about it...The ripening season starts in May and they are ready to be plucked by June.


If you wait longer then the squirrels and crows have a go at it ... I am employed to climb the tree and hand-pick the fruits,load em in a bag around my waist.Sitting precariously on a branch I then lower the bag tied to a rope down for my Dad to unload.This went on for several hours.


Later we would hire someone to climb to those parts which are unreachable.Also we had a hook attached to a long bamboo pole which was used for low hanging fruits..That instrument was pretty ingenious in that there was bag under the hook..The trick was to cut the stem holing the fruit and deftly catch it while doing..Of course we also had "catchers" to catch the unfortunate ones.


The fruits are neatly staked on hay ..got to be careful to keep the end which was attached to the branch facing down,else the "milk"(sap) would get inside the mango and produce a sour taste.
The usual summer haul was 600-700 mangoes..which were distributed unequally among my relatives and the rest was sold to any local vendor..
I felt very sad when we had to cut down the tree after several years...


I miss the mangoes...

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Marathon Boy

Found this article in CNN.Link Below

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/06/06/boy.walker.ap/index.html?eref=edition_world



Now here is an opportunity for Indian Olympic Association to recognise the talent of this toddler(just past it maybe) to encourage him and his family and provide support for his cause.Instead we go ahead and stop his ambitions.I mean If someone this young can run a 60 Kms(37 miles) marathon(albeit being severely exhausted!!!) wouldnt we jump at this chance ..that maybe he might win us an Olympic Gold for us..and might turn out to be the youngest marathon runner in the olympics.
If I were Suresh Kalmadi(IOA president) I would be very jubiliant about this news.
I would offer him a scholarship and train him to be the pride of India that he ought to be.
But thats me..
BTW..you can email Mr.Kalmadi from his website(http://www.skalmdi.org) maybe a few voices will do the needful..

-Later