JOIN USAdults ran around like greedy little children with sticky fingers while the kids gleefully attacked the guest of honour at the Mango Party hosted by Ranga Shankara over the weekend.
This annual festival, in honour of the king of fruits, was a lesson in unabashed indulgence. Some cut up their fruits, others couldn’t wait for a knife. Laughter did happy rounds around the corridors of the building as tiny streams of mango juice made its way down to elbows.
The gathering at the party proved the organisers claim — mango truly is a community fruit. Barbara Rau, a German tourist, who had polished of a few mangos, a mango lassi and a mango juice looking utterly pleased said, “My daughter Sophie, who was an intern at the Goethe Institute, told me about this festival and told me that I should come here. I think it is a very good idea. I haven’t heard of anything like this before.”
The annual Mango Party at Ranga Shankara turned four this year and a beaming Arundhati Nag seemed to be everywhere.
Overseeing the painting competition, eating a mango, clearing up the place, instructing volunteers and having a ball of a time.
“This festival was conceived,” Arundhati says, “even before the theatre was completely built.”
In the summers, while working on site, she and her gang would share mangoes. The workers on site were invited, too. These sessions gave birth to the annual event that Bangaloreans have come to love.
“It gives the kids something fun to do. I also believe that children should eat as much of a seasonal fruit as they could. Because soon it’ll be gone and they have to wait for the next year,” she said, speaking about the mango party.
The mango tiara-wearing kids sat around painting. Ragasukanya Shetty had painted disco mangos. Isha Sai’s mango tree had 16 mangoes, all neatly arranged in a row. A little shy boy wished for more blue and a pig-tailed girl had some to spare. A community fruit was spawning a community it seems.
“We love mangoes and we know that if it is happening at Ranga Shankara it will be unique,” said Babitha Harish, who had brought her son Kunal Harish and her niece Isha Sai to the party.
Not just painting, the afternoon had other activities for those who had gathered there.
Two mango stories were told about the birth of the mango trees. Mother and child teams competed against each other.
Mothers were blindfolded and had to recognise the variety of mango in front of them by smelling it. There was even a light-hearted quiz about mango, it’s name in different languages and myths connected to the fruit. Those kids who answered correctly won tee shirts.
If engaging in activities is not your thing, then there was the special mango-based menu for you to sample from.
Mango milkshakes and mango Srikand Puri, even a grilled mango sandwich found a place in the special menu created for the day.
It was a binge fest and boy, were the participants thrilled!