Mango time

It’s the height of summer. Schools are closed and the streets are filled with children playing cricket. Watermelon, sugar cane juice and tender coconut water is available on every street corner. The city falls asleep during the afternoon heat. The cats spend most of the day sleeping. Ceiling fans spin and air conditioners hum. Exceptionally there have been no power cuts for several weeks now. Perhaps it’s no coincidence that it’s also election time.

Summer time also means mango time! I’ve been watching the mango tree next to our front entrance. It didn’t have any fruit last year but it did the year before. This year it’s full of fruit hanging heavily from its branches. Each day the mangoes seem to be bigger but they are not quite ripe yet… A few weeks more. My landlady complains that the mangoes disappear before they are barely ripe. Disappear? “Drivers and schoolboys,” she explains.

Mangoes have already appeared in the supermarket. But there are only very few varieties available. But soon, mangoes will be everywhere in all shapes, sizes and colours, filling the market stalls and supermarket shelves. Just a few weeks more…