Mangoes in March

Frenz when is the correct time to eat your first mango I think itrsquos at a very particular intersection of time fragrance and price It should be unambiguous summer passing the fruit stall should wrap you in a Wonder Woman lasso of ripe gold perfume and one mango should not cost the same as your first salary unless you are over 73 Yaniki midAprilBut it has recently come to my notice that there are people who eat mangoes in March Yeh kya ho raha hai beta Duryodhan Should someone call Greta ThunbergWho are these people eating mangoes in March What does it say about them Obviously it says some of them are NRIs Well they adjust their clocks to the seasons so why not their season to the craving for mangoes But chalo they happen to be here in March and not July so they must gather their rosebuds while they May so to speakBut what of others We can only surmise that they have never heard that song by The Cavaliers a longago band from Kolkata called Love is a Mango on an album called Getting High in India which carries clear instructions about love and mangoes alikemdashldquolove is a mango that grows on a tree wait till the mango is ripe donrsquot make love if itrsquos still in the growing donrsquot take love as a guest without knowingrdquo Patience ka phal meetha hota hai Besides itrsquos just good manners to wait for an invitation from the seasonsBut some people think they are too modern for such climactic politesse No sooner have they glimpsed those mellow yellow babies amid the papeetas and watermelons then they must have them Then they will then put the mango through everythingmdashswaddle in a sack of rice smother in crushed newspapermdashto speed it from Marchness to Aprilness One person confessed that they zap it in the microwave while another says theyrsquove tried heating it on a tava I donrsquot know what is happening in their love lives I donrsquot think they do eitherThere are the opposite types of course the mango fundamentalists Those who donrsquot eat any mangoes till July or August because only dasseri or langda count as mangoes Is it worth being so persnicketty about pleasure They have taken to heart the lines from that same mango song ldquothink again relax look up and see for yourself the mango your love has grown intordquo Tastes are not by numbers so we need not account for themNothing beats cutting open that first mango and finding the sensual miracle of perfect flesh But in truth all too often that first mango spreads itself open only to reveal one of those angry fibrous centres or a curdled black heart and we move on to the next one a little sobered The song says ldquolove is a mango that never grows oldrdquo but is that really true Wait too long postponing pleasure in hope of absolute control and both love and mangoes rot a little festering within Life is short the seasons even shorter My friend sent me a Tenesse Williams poem that said ldquowe have not long to loveA night A dayhelliprdquo So if your tongue longs for it let it ripen your heart I guess But try to do so midApril preferablyParomita Vohra is an awardwinning Mumbaibased filmmaker writer and curator working with fiction and nonfiction Reach her at paromitavohramiddaycom