Mango-hunting in Rataul

Scenes from last week's day-trip to nearby Rataul, to visit the mango orchards (with a few friends who were more experienced in this sort of thing than I was). The walk was led by the mighty Sohail Hashmi, who has been doing this for many years, and who cautioned us beforehand that Rataul hadn’t had a good crop this year. This didn’t affect the quality and variety of the mangoes we encountered, though. After a traditional monsoon lunch (it being advisable to not have the mangoes on an empty stomach) at the Salma Public School (proceeds from the walk go here), we dug into the fruit. I hadn’t expected to sample more than two or three mangoes – mainly from the local Anwar Rataul variety – but as ambition and courage grew I ended up having many other types too, including the Gulab Jamun, the Laziz Baksh, the Doodhiya Gola and others whose names have slipped my mind.

We ate them with our hands after peeling the skin off from the top, the best way – and I suspect that having liberated myself thus from the tyranny of cutlery, this is how I will have mangoes at home too from now on; at least the ones that aren’t too big. I also brought back 3 kg of the Anwar Rataul mangoes, which then vanished very fast.

Pics include the start of the trip, on Safdar Hashmi Marg (where my friends Nikhil Kumar and Eshan Sharma diligently helped Sohail keep track of the more than 100 people piling into three coaches). Others encountered included long-time acquaintances Shivam Vij, Amitava Sanyal and the excellently erudite Ambarish Satwik.

P.S. more about Sohail’s Rataul walks (including the rudely named Haramzada mango) in this report.