The summer of 2020 was not a kind one. It was a scorching April afternoon when Sakhil Thaiyyil and friends reached Ottapalam in Palakkad, Kerala. As the road made a sharp turn, he noticed a gated house partly under the shade of a mango tree. The group stopped. On the other side of the gate, the woman of the house grew suspicious of the strangers staring at her property. When Thaiyyil asked her how good were the mangoes, she said, “Useless.”
The lady’s reaction did not surprise him, having had several such encounters. He did what he has always done—picked up a mango, half-eaten by a bird, from the ground and took a bite of its unbitten side. And, he was in sweet heaven. “Were you talking about this same tree, chechi (sister)?” he asked the woman. The fruit was fleshy with little fibre. The woman sheepishly replied that she was sleepy and was caught off guard by the group of strangers who wanted to know about a mango tree. When asked if the tree had a name, she was baffled. Who names trees in their compound? Thaiyyil spotted the name of her child scribbled on the steps leading to the house’s main door. “Shall we call it ‘Kunjoos’, then?” he asked. The family agreed.
Apart from ‘Kunjoos’, there is ‘Anaswara’, ‘Arya’, ‘Kairali’, ‘Thrissurkaaran’ and more. Most mangoes ‘found’ by Thaiyyil’s group are named with some reference to their discovery. “Mostly, it is nicknames of children. Obviously, you cannot give sweet mangoes adult names like Babu, Sabu,” he said, laughing.
Bu hikaye THE WEEK India dergisinin May 26, 2024 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye THE WEEK India dergisinin May 26, 2024 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
Stop ruling; start governing
In every election the voters elect a government.
HEALING THE EARTH
Land Restoration for a Drought-Resilient Future
Speak of the nawab
For Heeramandi's male lead, Taha Shah, the road to success was paved with flops
Northern delights
Four Kashmiri fashion labels that want to put the troubled region on the international style map
WOOING THE WAVES
India is developing strategic ports overseas and is exploring new oceanic trade routes to pursue its growing geopolitical objectives
TIPU, SULTAN!
In his first major election after the death of Mulayam Singh Yadav, Akhilesh humbles the BJP and proves he is his own man
A SLEEPER HIT
Naidu’s stunning victory raises questions about the vote-catching power of welfare schemes
SWEEPING LOSS
AAP’s disappointing performance has put a question mark on its relevance in the INDIA bloc
INDEPENDENTS' DAY
The Lok Sabha results in Baramulla and Ladakh reflect a churning among voters
Voters have changed, and we have benefited
In March 2022, Vice President Venkaiah Naidu asked a quirky question to actor-MP Suresh Gopi, who had come to the Rajya Sabha with a distinctive look.