It's the mango season
por aakashjoshi1012 @aakashjoshi1012
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On the roads, banyan-trees were caused to be planted by me, so that they might afford shade to cattle and men, and mango-groves were caused to be planted - Ashoka the Great.
She sits under the shades of mango trees in front of a wicker basket laden by hundreds of miniature suns. Alphonso mango, "The king of mangoes", as they are called in India. The name "Alphonso" was given to it after a nobleman and military expert called Afonso de Albuquerque who helped establish the Portuguese colony in India and introduced this regal fruit first to Goa. Although what he saw when he first disembarked upon this enshrined city of Buddhists' foundation was quite different from what she sees right now as she inhales the biddy sitting in her own marked territory as if admonishing her reign over the sidestreet.
Sea of cars hurtle through the golden streets dotted with lumps of meat rolling around like premature dolphins. Traffic lights change their colors like an incompetent chameleon. A sweaty man in white uniform standing at the center of it performs some traffic rituals to keep the flow going. Right across from her street, copious amounts of wine shops sag under each other's weight. An overarching bridge displays its concrete underside. And at the end of it all the Mandovi river strolls idly towards the west rejoicing with the Arabian sea.
Hungry men make their way to the snacks centers. Tourists donned in their perforated three/fourths lug their luggage in a hurry to catch the bus while other street peddlers just like her shouts different prices of their selling goods trying to get their attention. A drunk man sprawled across the footpath resumes his siesta. Lottery tickets are stapled on cardboard like the bottom of Pandora's box. She sees children emerging out from betwixt their parents like anthers from flowers. And she sees lovers of different ages carrying each other's waists to the park behind her.
Behind her the Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Park, named after the independent India's first Minister of Law and Justice, is beaming with Green. Lofty cedar trees line its borders like a windbreak staving off the loud cacophony of the bustling street. Long ranges of topiaries flanking the pavement welcome the visitors in silent meditation. Mulched and dried banana trees stand at intervals like sentinels. And at the far corner some coconut trees drop their fruits with a muffled thud. Birds quench their thirst by the fountain and chirp their way to their nests. The water keeps replenishing, shining under the sun like a stuck umbrella. And a statue of a man holding a folder stands proudly on a hazel colored, hexagonal pedestal with a plaque in front inscribed: “BHARATRATNA DR. B. R. AMBEDKAR, THE VALIANT FIGHTER FOR HUMAN FREEDOM AND DIGNITY OF MAN”
Even if she can't see all of that she can still sense it. All of it already dwells in her body like a resilient tumor. But it’s June, the ideal season for Alphonso mangoes. And she has to sit here on the weltered sidestreet with those mangoes, vivid and voluptuous, heaped onto each other like a pyramid made of gemstones. She probably had to get up early to win this spot which is the only one on the whole street protected from the sun which seems more than relentless to-day. And she sees everything with her fishy eyes carved inside a corrugated forehead. Everything.
2 comentarios
aakashjoshi1012
@shaun_levin ¡Hola! Así que decidí seguir tu consejo y escribir sobre los alrededores. Y esto es lo que pude recoger de mi memoria de ese día y también de mis dos amigos que estaban conmigo en Goa. Gracias por leer.
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shaun_levin
Profesor Plus@aakashjoshi1012 ¡Disfruté esto! Me gusta cómo usas el agua y las imágenes del mar, especialmente con ese calor, cuando un baño en el mar sería algo bienvenido. Cuando vivía en Londres, era un gran placer cuando los mangos Alfonso estaban disponibles una vez al año, por lo que fue interesante leer sobre el origen del nombre :)
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