After a brief layover in Doha, Qatar we finally touched down in Chennai, made it through customs and immigration, and picked up a very happy and healthy Blue. We’d be spending the next week and a half with Ravi’s Paatti (grandmother, in Tamil) as well as Ravi’s dad and step-mom (Baba and Carol) and his uncle BK. Paatti’s family compound is in the heart of downtown Chennai. A noisy, dusty, busy city bursting at the seams with auto rickshaws, street vendors, and people. People are everywhere. If a person isn’t there, then a dog or a cow definitely is.
Chennai was hot and humid. We’d arrived in the heart of the Agni Nakshatram which translates to “days of the fire star” but I’m pretty sure a more honest translation would be “inside the mouth of a dehydrated human.” It feels exactly the way I described it. This is a 2 week period in May that happens to be the hottest part of the whole year. It can be an auspicious time for certain things and a bad idea for others. One of the bad things, you might ask? Traveling. Traveling long journeys. Uhhhhhhhh, but I’ll bet traveling long journeys with kids and a dog makes it okay, right?
We are no strangers to hot, sticky, humid days and we made the decision to come in May for a very specific reason. That reason starts with a mang and ends with a go. You could poll 1,000 people with the question “What is your favorite time of year?” Answers would vary of course but I’d bet you get a bunch of the same. The top runners would probably be Christmas time, spring when the bulbs come up, fall when the leaves turn colors, and so on and so forth. If you polled the Kumar Family on this same question you would likely get one answer, MANGO SEASON.
In the weeks leading up to our trip we discussed mango season ad naseum. Every day someone would toss out a mango related anecdote or fun fact. We discussed the different varieties we’d have access to and told stories of our favorite mangos thus far. This was serious, mangos are serious, and no amount of oppressive volcanic dragonian heat was going to prevent us from experiencing Tamil Nadu’s mango season to its fullest.
However, we landed at 2am, and got to Paatti’s house around 4:30am, so mangos would have to wait a couple of hours. After showering and getting comfortable we all headed upstairs and outside to the rooftop terrace of the cement, 3-story home. We’d all come on a family trip to India at the beginning of 2020 where we’d created the beautiful early morning tradition of having rooftop south Indian filter coffee. This coffee is made by using a strong coffee decoction, milk, and sugar. You froth it by pouring it from one glass to another. This is called pulling, and it magically transforms your coffee or tea from a flat and basic drink into a rich, creamy, and exotic beverage. This delicious drink can be enjoyed at any time by anyone anywhere, but is best served on grandmothers’ rooftop terraces in India with the haunting melodies of the Asian koel as your soundtrack. Enjoy.
Fresh mango off the tree in India is a transformational experience! Hope all’s well.
Mang Go!!!!