Mango Festival 2018: Last year it was Yogi aam, this year taste Vedic aam in the Capital

You might have heard of a Sheila Mango (named after former CM of Delhi, Sheila Dixit), and even a Yogi Mango (named after Uttar Pradesh’s CM Yogi Adityanath). But this year, the mango growers of India are heading to the Capital with newer varieties of mangoes, besides the usual hits such as Langra, Chausa, Rataul, Hussainara, Ramkela, Kesar, Fazri, Mallika, and Amrapalihat, to make you fall in love with the fruit all over again. At the upcoming Mango Festival 2018, besides a huge display of a variety of mangoes, visitors can also participate in games, quizes and mango-eating competitions.

Being organised in the Capital since 1988, the festival’s 30th edition will have over 500 varieties of mangoes displayed by participants from Bihar, Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttrakhand and Uttar Pradesh.

More than 500 varieties of mangoes will be on display at the festival this year.

And it’s how the growers name the mangoes that often excites the mango lovers. “This year, we have grown a new variety of mango, and have named it Gayatri Mango; Gayatri Devi was wife of Chaudhary Charan Singh. It’s a sweet mango with normal size and is yellowish in colour and round in shape,” says Tariq Mustafa, a mango-grower from Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh. He adds that once they have another new variety of mango, he will want to name it after a cricketer. “Virat Kohli is my choice. He’s doing so good for the country, and should be rewarded. This is our way of rewarding our sportspersons, specially our cricketers who are representing our country at international level and bringing laurels. In fact, there should also be a mango named after Sachin Tendulkar,” says Mustafa.

The spiritual beings can look out for a variety of mango named Vedic Aam. “There were no pesticides used when this mango was grown. That’s why we named it Vedic Aam,” says Ramveer Singh Chauhan, a mango-grower from Saharanpur, UP. Chauhan adds that if he develops another variety of aam, he would want to name it after Delhi’s Deputy CM Manish Sisodia. Chauhan adds, “Humare chote CM ji hain na... Unke upar rakhenge hum apne naye aam ka naam. Par uske alawa agar hume kisi pe naam rakhna hai to hum Rajkummar Rao pe rakhenge. Ek actor Prithviraj Kapoor they jo hume pasand they aur ek Rajkummar hain; isliye kyunki inki acting aisi hai jaise sakshaat ho, lagti hi nahi ki acting hai… ekdum real lagti hai jo bhi picture mein kaam karte hain (If I get a chance, I would like to name mangoes after Delhi’s Deputy CM, Manish Sisodia, and actor Rajkummar Rao. I used to like late actor Prithviraj Kapoor’s work, and now I like Rajkummar’s work because his acting is so real that it’s difficult to believe that we are watching him in a movie).”

There will also be mango eating competitions for visitors.

But, that’s not all. There are also competitions curated with mango as the theme, and even mango products will be available to experience. Shurbir Singh, managing director, Delhi Tourism, says, “This will be my first experience at the festival, but I know for a fact that the Mango Festival is a much awaited event of the Capital. Over the years, it has gained much appreciation among Delhiites who are keen to witness the unique display of mangoes and engage in various activities such as mango-eating competition for men and women and quiz and slogan-writing competition (for children) on mango. If you want to have a look at a mango, which is as small as a grape or as big as a papaya, the 30th Mango Festival is the place to be.”

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