There’s a shift in the season. Even though the heavy humid air surrounds us, one cannot help but notice that the festive season is near, and soon the weather will change to breezy mornings and lighter evenings. I, for one, love the cooler temperatures and cannot wait for the autumn breeze to surround us, slowly giving way to the magical Delhi winters! But as much as I abhor the hot summer months, it is only my love for mangoes that makes them bearable. The excitement began all the way back in March, as Alphonsos from Ratnagiri started flooding the market, slowly making way for Gir Kesar from Gujarat. Then, come the familiar mangoes from the Northern belt—Langra, Dussehri, Chausa and Amrapali.
Alas! We’re almost at the end of the mango season. Not being one who’s quite ready to bid farewell to my favourite fruit just as yet, I decided to pack my bags and drive almost 300 kilometres to a century-old mango orchard in the foothills of the Shivaliks, to savour the sight and flavours of the season’s last few mangoes. Bikram Bagh in Nahan, a small town in the Sirmaur district of Himachal Pradesh, is spread over 100 acres and was established by Colonel Bir Bikram Singh, the younger son of the then Maharaja of Sirmaur. He was an astute military man who led as the Commander in Chief of the State Forces in WWI—relics of which can still be seen at Bikram Bagh. The sprawling land was once a dense forest, which the late colonel converted into an enviable orchard with over 15-20 varieties of mangoes. Siddharth Katoch, a resident of Delhi and the man behind Bikram Bagh today, is the fifth generation member who has taken it upon himself to preserve this rich family history.
“That mango tree that you see behind your room is almost a century old and was amongst one of the first trees to have been planted here. This mango on that tree is known as Handle, and it was specially grafted for King George V”, Katoch shares. The mango was almost as big as my face, and I was informed that this was not even half the size that it once used to be! It is a variety that is not as common in the rest of India but was once amongst the most prized ones in this belt of Shivaliks. It is an extremely fleshy mango with a small seed, and it was made to be such that scooping and eating it was easier for the colonisers, who did enjoy their fair bit of the king of fruits.
I brought back one giant ‘Handle’ with me to Delhi, along with some freshly plucked Dussehri and Langras. At home, I cut a tiny piece to taste and realised that it was too tarty to be eaten as it is, so I decided to char it on the gas flame and make a smoky aam-panna with it. As the embers from the mango flew and made the fruit slit open, the sweet nectar trickled down and the heady aroma of smoked mango infused with its inherent sweetness surrounded us. If only I could transfer that aroma into my carefully strewn words…
This mango season, I have been lucky to not only have consumed the most delicious mangoes but also discovered some interesting youngsters from Delhi, who are doing their bit to preserve and document their family’s heritage that is so richly interlinked with this fruit. From Siddharth Katoch of Bikram Bagh who has bid his city-life adieu to settle in the silence of his mango orchards where the only sounds that surround him are of chirpy loud birds, to Sanyaa Mehrotra of The Farm Project, who to keep her grandmother’s legacy alive has launched this initiative, where they’re delivering mangoes across India, from their orchard in Uttar Pradesh’s Malihabad.
India is also steadily waking up to following more thematic tourism ideas, instead of simply sticking to selecting a destination. For this, in the mango universe, India today has mango festivals which are designed exclusively for enthusiasts. There’s also an increasing effort to save the history of mangoes, and the king of fruits reciprocates by giving back in surprises that you never may have expected.
For instance—just as I marvelled at the humongous Handle, Katoch presented to me its antithesis. Called Supari, it looked like an overgrown betel nut, showcasing the sheer richness and variety of mangoes in India that took me by surprise!
Vernika Awal is a food writer who is known for her research-based articles through her blog ‘Delectable Reveries’