With a lot of high priority things bugging my head these days, I think I will find solace in writing this light hearted yet the “leaves a smile on your face” reoccurring moment of life.
Having grown up in a Mediterranean country like Libya, I and my sister had the lesser advantage to savor on the famous summer Indian fruit which is Mango. During our vacation trips to India we would gorge on mangoes, mango pickle, the khatta meetha mango chutney that biji made and all most every mango laden concoction not to forget litres of mango shake that would be an excuse and tonic to endure the scorching heat.
A peculiar event that always happens during the fruit session after the meals is, examining the mangoes (read greedy tasting) for which everybody in the family turns certified testers. My uncle would cut neat pieces and then say bada ee miththai hai (meetha hai!!!!).Then biji would tell us her meethe aam stories from Patiala and everyone would start with their experiences. Someone would say the longer ones are better , others would advocate thee red ones and someone would swear the sweetness directly proportional to the shape via langda, choker aam etc etc.
Till date ,without fail my dad advocates his ability to distinguish wadiya aamb(better mangoes) from the bekar hai ones over everybody else’s choice and then say proudly slicing it Meetha hai!!!!!! My sister has this habit of cutting her share of mango slices in beautiful shapes and then she would turn to dad n say…aur khate hain…Meetha hai!!!!! ;).A distant jolly aunt (that's her nature not name) once told me how she secretly hides a mango or two in the flour container for she is diabetic and no one would let her have her sweet meetha hai moment.
Though I am not an avid mango lover and most of the above did not make any sense to me during my growing years, yet when I think about this sweet moment, I end up smiling and asking my folks ..Meetha hai?