Our brief spring is over and summer has begun in earnest. The afternoons are hot and sticky and I enjoy my pleasant evening walk by Marine Drive with the cool breeze blowing in from the Arabian Sea.

Despite the heat, Mumbai is the best place in the world to be in summer because the roads are clear and the city emptied of half its inhabitants. With children on school holidays, Mumbai, too, takes a break and the ones left behind can enjoy the relative quietness of a city normally revelling in manic activity.

The best part of the summer is the mango but alas, this summer there are no mangoes for me!

This is my last chance to lose weight as the weight that I had lost and that has begun creeping back  🙁

 

My Mango Summer

Alas! this summer
There are no mangoes
like a monsoon without rain.
And I have memories of mangoes past
Embedded in my brain.

My hot summer mango
Ripe orange yellow
Pink blush turning
Sweet smell cloying.
Slow fan droning in a darkened room.
Lolling in bed
Chatting with cousins
Reading soppy novels
Sipping coke
Munching on cake
and chips.

My fat  summer watermelon
Dark sugar baby
green, Red crunchy
Sweet juice dripping.
Flopping in plump arm chairs
Cycling down empty streets.

Enjoying a cool summer breeze
Down the street by the sea.
Long days slowly
Morphing into an inky dark blue sky

Rubber slippers flip flopping
Summer T’s and cotton shorts.
Late night drives
For ice cream cones
Ripe strawberries
And mango jam.

Holidays in far off hills
or by the beach with
soft waves lapping
kissing toes
Buried deep in
soft white sand.

Alas! this year there are no mangoes-
mere recollections
of the mangoes past.

Mango Facts

Native to India, South America and Africa, any variety of this tropical fruit is tasty. But, undoubtedly, the hybrid Alphonso is unrivalled in its claim to be the King of Fruits.

This fruit is named after Afonso de Albuquerque, a Portuguese general who helped establish Portuguese colonies in India. It was developed by grafting on local mango trees in the Konkan region in Maharashtra and Goa

The Alphonso is also one of the most expensive varieties of mango,^[1] and is a seasonal fruit cultivated in  western India; notably in Sindhudurg, Ratnagiri and Raigad districts of the Konkan. 

A perfect mango is one that weighs almost quarter of a kilo!

It has a smooth orange skin tinged with pink blush,  so fragrant that the whole street knows it has arrived, with a skin so thin that peels off ever so smoothly to reveal a  soft velvety texture that makes it melt in the mouth.

The Alphonso is available mid-April through the end of June.

This fruit is a powerhouse of nutrition.

1.  It is rich in pre-biotic dietary fiber, vitamins, minerals, and poly-phenolic flavonoid antioxidant compounds.
2. The polyphenolic antioxidantcompounds in mango are known to offer protection against many cancers.
3. It is a source of Vitamin-A and flavonoids like β-carotene, α-carotene, and β-cryptoxanthin. 100 g of fresh fruit provides 765 IU or 25% of recommended daily levels of vitamin-A,  antioxidant properties and are essential for vision.
4. Vitamin-A also required for maintaining healthy mucosa and skin. Consumption of natural fruits rich in carotenes is known to protect from lung and oral cavity cancers.
5.  A 100 g fruit provides 156 mg of potassium while just 2 mg of sodium ( an important component of cell and body fluids that helps controlling heart rate and blood pressure.
6. It is also an excellent source of vitamin-B6 (pyridoxine), vitamin-C and vitamin-E that helps the body develop resistance against infectious agents as well as scavenge harmful oxygen-free radicals. Vitamin B-6 or pyridoxine required for GABA hormone production within the brain.
7. It also controls homocysteine levels within the blood, which may otherwise be harmful to blood vessels resulting in coronary artery disease (CAD), and stroke.
8. Further, it composes moderate amounts of copper. Copper is a co-factor for many vital enzymes, including cytochrome c-oxidase and superoxide dismutase (other minerals function as co-factors for this enzyme are manganese and zinc). Copper also required for the production of red blood cells.
9. Additionally, mango peel is also rich in phytonutrients, such as the pigment antioxidants like carotenoids and polyphenols.
10. One medium sized mango has approximately 150 calories, which means if you eat two medium sized mangoes you consume approximately 300 calories

So this year I shall have to make to with memories of the mangoes past.

I do hope you, dear Reader takes the opportunity to pack up on all the nutrients this fruit contains to help you keep healthy all year long!

Ciao