Bite of summer: Mango celebrated with music, food, and storytelling at Delhi event
To say that Indians are obsessed with mangoes is no overstatement. What else could explain the impressive turnout at the Bazm-e-Aam—a unique celebration of the 'king of fruits' through storytelling, music, and food, despite the sweltering heat?
The event, which saw the attendance of scholars, artists, historians, writers, food lovers, and cultural enthusiasts, was hosted by the Kashkol Collective at the India International Centre in Delhi on Saturday.
It opened with a Dastangoi (Urdu oral storytelling) by Ashhar Haque, and was followed by a conversation between heritage conservationist Sohail Hashmi and journalist Sopan Joshi, the author of the much-acclaimed book 'Mangifera indica: A Biography of the Mango'.
The conversation threw light on how the mango isn't just a fruit in India but also has historical, cultural (and even political) nuances to it.
For instance, Hashmi recalled a time when Pakistan’s former president Zia-ul-Haq gifted Anwar Ratol mangoes to the then-Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. In response, fruit growers from Rataul, a village in Uttar Pradesh’s Baghpat district, approached Gandhi to point out that the mango variety wasn’t originally Pakistani, but had its roots in India.
Also, who can forget the famous interview of PM Narendra Modi in which he spoke of how he likes to eat mangoes?
The conversation on mangoes on a hot summer evening in Delhi then paved the way for a music performance by Dholak Rani, featuring Shivangini Yeshu Yuvraj and Isha Priya Singh, who presented Songs of Summer, a medley of folk tunes and melodies that captured the very essence of the summer.
The evening ended sumptuously with a mango-focused dinner curated by chef Sadaf Hussain. It included dishes such as 'aam kathal ki sabji' from Bihar, the Gujarati-Parsi dish 'ras-no-fajeto', a mango and mutton keema dish called 'achraj' from Lucknow, a mango chutney from Manipur, and 'aam ki kheer' from Rajasthan among others. A clear reflection of the versatility of the fruit, this exercise also showed how differently the fruit could be prepared at different places.
"When we first envisioned Bazm-e-Aam, we wanted to create an evening where stories, poetry, music, and food could come together around something as simple, yet profound, as the mango—a fruit that has been part of our history, our culture, and our conversations for centuries," said Ambreen Shah, founder of the Kashkol Collective and the director of Bazm-e-Aam, in a press note.
Lifestyle