A ‘khaas’ treat awaits ‘aam log’

Lucknow: Sweet is the lore which Nature brings…. And those willing to soak in the joy of this abundant sweetness that this time of the year brings us should head to Awadh Shilpgram. The three-day mango fest that opened here on Friday has delights of many hues and lands under one roof. From the city’s pride Dussehri to Tommy Atkins from Florida and Sensation from Africa, about 2,500 mangoes of 800 varieties are vying for visitors’ attention at the fest.Besides, people also relished mango ice-cream while a few others were busy buying mango products, like aam panna, pickle, murabba, aam papad and kaccha aam papad along with a variety of mango plants.Among the exhibitors was Alirajpur-based farmer Pradeep Singh Rathore. The pièce de resistance at his stall was ‘Noorjahan’, a mango variety from Madhya Pradesh which weighs about 2 kg each.“I got the plant grafted about 15 years ago from some old men in the region. It has been fruiting for the last 12 years. Sometimes I even get a 4 kg fruit from the tree, but this year I could only manage to get a 2 kg mango due to the untimely storm,” said Rathore. SC Shukla, the mango seller with the smallest mangoes at the exhibition, a Sri Lankan variety named Climber, the fruits of which weigh 25 grams each, had displayed many types of mangoes, including the show-stopper Yogiraj. “I named it after our Chief Minister. The fruit is shaped like a yoga pose which made me name it after Yogi Adityanath,” said Shukla.The visitors had a good time buying mangoes for home. Sarojini Bisht (46) and her daughter Kajal (20) were mesmerised to see so many varieties of mangoes in one place. “Everybody in our family is a mango lover. After getting to know about different mangoes, we thought of buying some to try them with everybody at home,” said Bisht.Some even enjoyed having ice-creams made of organic mangoes, jamuns and jackfruits. Among them was Shrishti Tiwari (22) who said that it was no less than a treat to enjoy three different ice-creams at the same time. “I was unsure about trying jackfruit ice-cream at first, but after tasting it, I really enjoyed it. Besides, I could actually taste the tart and sweet flavours of mangoes in the mango ice-cream,” said Tiwari.