Aamsutra.....

Recollect staggering along the undulating village roads with your pals and finding yourselves jobless .The first thing in the mind would be rush to the nearest mango tree and hurl a few pebbles at the irresistible looking fruits . One or two would certainly yield to our efforts and fall down(lets discount Newton and gravity for sometime ,please).And then the glory of savoring the fruit was no less than accomplishing any herculean real life act.

If you have had no such experience, I’m afraid but you might not have appreciated the blissful act mango eating really is. Although products like mazaa ,fruity and flavoured icecreams have made the Maharaja of Indian fruits, the aam literally commonplace ,but they have truly undermined the delightful act mango eating should be .While it comes naturally to children and even monkeys for that matter, for the greater part of the evolved Indian community this delectable act has been reduced to a mere inanity. Although the ladies of the British Raj were loathe to consume the fruits in the privacy of their bathroom, mangoes and privacy seldom go together .The fun is paramount when a group of friends partake this feast. Ask the village-wale bhaiyyas and they will tell you that using knives upon the mango or trying to suppress slurping or any other ‘refined gestures’ are bad manners. Talk of any sort of moderation and you kill the pure joy of mango eating.

While eating,any attempt to prevent one’s clothes from tasting the nectary pulp is a strict no-no. Yes, yes , ”daag ache hain” .This holds true for mango eating than any other activity. And last but not the least, the most important commandment of mango morality says that all mangoes, procured by whatever means, are kosher .Therefore when someone offers the fruit ,it is sacrilegious to ask its source. Unfortunately the world is teeming with too many street smart people. To them ,there is only one reply. ” Janaab, aam khaiye, ped mat giniye ”