The Mango Party!

Every year around the middle of June, our grandfather would send a wooden crate of dusseri and chausa mangoes from Lucknow and every year we would throw a mango party!

It was a much awaited event in our social circle and we would have two sets of people joining in- early evening 5 pm onwards, our friends, and after 7.30 pm, their parents and more of my parents friends. When will the mangoes arrive, used to be the most frequent question June onwards. Each time someone asked, my father's chest would swell with filial pride and he would talk like a true Lucknawi about how authentic and genuine the mangoes from Lucknow are, and how the researchers were messing around with look alike hybrids etc etc. All true and very very disturbing to the generation who have inherited mango orchards (aam ke baagh) and who are selfishly aristocratic in their fetish for asli dusseri and asli chausa!

So the crate(there were no cartons or fresh fruit boxes, those days) would arrive by post and we would call up our father and wait for him to come home and pry open the wooden lid with a pair of pincers or screwdriver. The mangoes would be packed in real straw, not paper straw or moulded cases or styrene covers. The fragrance would be so heady, ripe mangoes and straw, and the entire house would start smelling! Then we would count because we had to be certain that the entire lot had reached us- there were stories about how wooden boxes with goodies could be opened en route and part contents could be taken away!It used to take at least 5-6 days for the mangoes to reach from Lucknow to Jabalpur.

The mangoes would be hot after their journey in the parcel van of the Mail train, and we would take them out with great reverence, grade them according to their extent of ripeness, and then start planning the party.

At the party, mangoes would be served with cream, and also ice cream. Our mother would cook up an entire spread of various kinds of chaat and sandwiches, chips and soft drinks would be ordered and the mango party would happen. The cutting of the mangoes was exclusively our fathers job; no one could cut fruit better than papa and he seemed to enjoy doing it.

Often, for a first time invitee, the mango party was intriguing. Every party has to have a reason- so they would think we are not telling them its someone's birthday. We would tell them that in our family, birthday parties are strictly not by invitation, but they would still come with a gift- maybe a box of chocolates! That would be our bonus, and my sister and me would keep discussing what was inside the wrapper till the party got over. My brother was too young to be involved- he used to be busy doing things like jumping from the verandah just because his girlfriend told him to (when he did this jumping, he was four and his girlfriend was seven- she promised him a rose if he jumped; and he jumped and landed on his face!)
So the mango party would happen and then we all would raise a toast to the next year- this was a party by invitation only!And an organized one at that! Right from the mangoes coming from Lucknow to the maid washing the dishes, it was all well planned and executed!
The good times!