Subir Roy: A largely fruitless journey

My host looked a little puzzled, wondering if I was being facetious or had started to get dotty a bit early in the day. So I repeated as clearly as I could: yes, what I miss most about Bangalore is not the weather but the papayas.

Until two years ago, in season they would sell them at Rs 20 a kg. But so much more important was the taste. The ripe papaya, without being excessively sweet as some fruits can be, held its own in flavour, and had the lightest defining aroma - making you feel that if there were a hierarchy among fruit that were all good for you, then the papaya would surely be near the top.

The best was, of course, the two or three that our next-door neighbour would present us every year, fresh from his farm. But even the common market variety was absolutely par for the course. So it became mandatory to for us to cart along half a suitcase of the fruit on our annual visit to Kolkata so that relatives could get a taste of Bangalore without being able to go there.

The downside is that ever since we settled down in Kolkata, I have been on an endless, near-fruitless search for a reliable market or a vendor who could deliver a decent ripe papaya - or even one that does not taste downright foul.

As I have got to know some of the vendors better, I have asked them why there has been such a decline over the years in the quality of the fruit the city has to offer. The honest answer eventually came from a middle-aged man who had the look of a farm all over him. This trade has been ruined by the greedy, he surprised me by confessing.

The fruit is picked too early, and while quite raw so that they stay preserved for longer - and, what is worse, they are then artificially ripened, so as to "look" ripe. It is this process that creates the near foul taste, which is much worse than simply being not sweet at all.

Not just the papaya. This is true of the humble banana as well. You buy a bunch thinking it is good to eat immediately, going by its looks, only to find that it is not ready at all. Then, within a day, they have travelled to the other extreme - overripe in spots, despite looking all right before peeling. So we have evolved the strategy of buying only enough for one day at a time.

The story is partially, though thankfully not entirely, the same with mangoes. They let you down, but not as much. What is disheartening is the slow decline in variety. Monoclonal culture is well set, and you fear the day when you will be left with little choice except the langda through the entire season.

In this picture of gloom, there have been two blessings this year through sheer luck. First was the lychee, which is always as delicious as it is costly - and the season is so short that it is gone before you know it. But then, this year, there was a scare over a virus in the lychee, which has supposedly killed several children in north Bengal that adjoins the main lychee-growing areas in Bihar.

As a result, there was a sudden flush of lychees all over the place, at prices that were actually affordable. My family and I said boo to the virus scare and gorged ourselves on the fruit in a way we had not done in years.

Then it was the same with mangoes early in this season. The European Union had banned the import of Indian mangoes for the season because of the presence of fruit flies. Nothing of the sort, said the knowledgeable, darkly hinting at a minor trade war. They were responding to the Indian authorities stopping imported consignments of packaged foods because of improper labelling.

Thus, it was that for the first time in god knows how long I went out and actually bought a few Alphonso mangoes, because the European ban had changed availability in India and they had actually become affordable. Maybe because of this auspicious beginning (for the likes of me and not the farmers), this mango season has till now held up quite well, with a good balance between price and availability.

All diets say "go high on fruit and vegetables", but I don't know for how long before it has to be only vegetables and maybe some fish. You can get some idea about those two from their looks; but for fruit, looks have become hugely deceptive. The only solution is to stick to a reliable vendor and be prepared to pay a bit more. But sadly I have found out to my cost even the most reliable let you down every so often.

subirkroy@gmail.com