Mallika madness!

This year in particular, Bangalore seems to have got a bumper crop of Mallika mangoes. For a 'sensible' Rs.40-45/- one can buy a kg of the ripe and wonderfully flavoursome variety which I prefer over the Bainganpallis and (well its debatable) Raspuris. No one can change my love for the Malgoba which we Bangaloreans have always enjoyed in season. But this year in particular we were told that due to 'unseasonal' rains, the mango crop will be dismal.
However, the crop has been astounding and particularly the huge quantitites of Mallika. They have made me into a mango addict and thats not very good for a diabetic!

On the farm two trees got beautifully large fruit, but as usual when the time came for picking, I was told by the venerable (he is a young rogue) Narsimappa, that the fruit had fallen with the breeze and so he threw them away. I could have gladly strangled him. BUT, in his usual casual fashion said, the next round I will see that you get them Amma --- and that by the way is NEXT year, IF the mango trees fruit!

As kids we always gorged on really HUGE Malgobas which grew on the tree on Hayes Road. However the trees just stopped fruiting for years now, no matter what we feed them.The Mallikas are a graft and just 5 feet off the ground have begun to fruit.They are apparently a new variety, so hats off to the Botanist or Dendrologist who stumbled on this delicious variety. They are fleshy, divinely falvourful and the seeds are narrow almost flat, giving the fruit much more meat!

I have cubed three kgs and frozen them in the freezer for Dave and Andy to make trifle when they come for the wedding in October!They are not fruit crazy, but I have tasted the awful Jamaican mangoes in the US and after paying an arm and a leg for them, I can say without a doubt, our Indian mangoes are the best!

Here's my friend Caroline Martis Radhakrishnan's ( & I thought I had a long name!) recipe to enjoy -
Pulp from 1kg mango(any fibreless one), 200g nilgiri cream, sugar pdr if needed, gelatine 3tbs. Puree pulp & sugar pdr (if using). Whip cream til stiff. Soak gel in 3 tbs water for 5min & then melt over double boiler. blend pulp, gel well. Fold in cream well. chill til set. decorate with mango slivers or piped cream ... or just your tongue :-))

Try it, I am going to tomorrow. As you can see I have got the mangos!

Castle Street or Moonscape?

We are living in the dark ages on Castle Street. It's unbelievable the way we have had to bear the brunt of first unfinished drain digging and now the KEB laying cables.
First they began digging and making a drain on both sides of the road. The contractor was obviously not paid, so he stopped the job halfway and left.
Now the KEB is digging the road itself and since last night we are without water as they cut our water pipe supplying water from the road connection. Its hellish living in Bangalore. If you don't get water, you have sewage problems or traffic jams. Its an endless stream of problems and there does not seem to be an end in sight.
Now to get after the BWSSB guys otherwise how will we live with no water? And , get ready for shelling out huge sums for no fault of ours.
Oh yes! The BWSSB guy said it's not our fault get to the KPTCL, and the KPTCL guys said its not our fault, get after the BWSSB. Finally I took pics and said look fellows, fix the damn pipe or I will take these pics to the papers. The press card, that powerful, magical presscard, and the creeps who said Kannada gottila to my Hindi are quickly fixing the pipe.
Bangalore has gone to the dogs, errr! to the goons whom we pay to run the infrastructure.Three cheers for the press, jaago re!

After a week: Finally in desperation and no water for 3 days the pics got the reporters down here.Then the inaccessible Ramesh (BWSSB)who was ever so nasty arrived at our door to enquire how he could help.I almost fainted at his feet. The story must have had his boss kick his ass ( no do not pardon my french, I am so furious)Miracle of miracles he knows to speak Hindi, or English, or Tamil or any language.
We bought the pipe but they fixed it and the corporation goons who terrorised us are absconding. You should have just given them 500 bucks for their Sunday liquor said the plumber. NO I WILL NEVER DO THAT. We all have to stand together and stop this shamefull paying our way to get anything done in this country. If you are strong enough to fight the cowards will cow down.
I am vindicated and the road is at last seeing some semblance of normalcy coming to it.But its a continuous fight. Today the BSNL was opening the road, checking their broken cables.Our country cannot have state of the art underground systems as we do not follow any systems.
Onwards untill the next collision, thats the way we live in Bangalore today.

Traffic jams and grafitti!

We were stuck in the most awful traffic jam on our way out of the city to the Bird of Paradise resort last week. And by the way it was just 8am in the morning.Plus we had decided to stop at the Kamath's restaurant on the way out for breakfast instead of eating anything before leaving. Kamath is a fav stop over and if you have never been there, please do indulge in their dosas and vadas and idlis all wrapped up in banana leaves. I digress, so as we were grouching about the traffic, the road opened up slightly and there infront of us was this car and I did a double take when I saw what was written across the back windscreen! Steve quickly took my camera and shot it through the wind screen for posterity! It gave us a good laugh and we were curious about what the driver looked like. Unfortunately he sped away before we could!