Remember those huge jars in the storage area of your house which used to be open once in a while and the aroma of the pickle would come and your mother or grandmother would carefully take out some pickle with a clean dry spoon and transfer some to a smaller jar! While my mother’s mother would have these jars full of pickles, my sweet toothed paternal grandmother would also have this thick halwa made out of jackfruit and jaggery called the Chakravarty! A sweet and salt bonanza!
We used to call the jars as Bharani and we always used to look at then with wonder since none of us were allowed close to them and we were never allowed to open them! If you are allowed to open a Bharani then it means that you have become responsible enough! It was a better proof of becoming a major than even your aadhar card!
Then she would carefully put a layer of oil over the pieces of mangoes which would be trying to get up and escape! Then a layer of plastic sheet will be put and the lid would be closed again tightly only to be opened after some weeks!
In fact the whole process of making the mango pickle or Avakkai pickle in my grandmother’s house was like an operation theatre with the chief aunties or mamis covering their face so that even a droplet of water in terms of spit would escape!
Only the most firm and green mangoes would be selected in a selection process more tough than the IIT! Just like the IIT or NEET if you are old or ripe then you are rejected without a thought or mercy!
Then like the grilling and training which happens in the army for the new cadets, each and every mango would be washed in a separate preoperative prep room! and cleaned with a clean cloth!
Then after getting it into the main room it is once again cleaned this time by the chief assistant surgeon! Then they would be cut by the chief surgeon with so much expertise that most of the pieces would be so equal in size to each other and they would look like clones! The home cloning machine! The whole room will now be having the aroma of raw mangoes and the tempted kids would devising plans of invasion!
Many mangoes may still be rejected in this phase like the UPSC interview stage! Survival and picking (more accurately Pickling!) Of the fittest! Darwin would be pleased Then comes the salting of the mangoes!
This is when the recruits like to run away! Some odd pieces would be eaten or given to those kids who would try to trespass the sterile area! The challenge was to bite the sour mango without closing your eyes! An impossible task indeed!
The elder kids and people would prefer the mango at the next stage when they are fully dressed in red (the mango that is!)! The chili powder dusting with a hint of asafetida would be the more tasty version! The immediate best is yet to come though!
Then the mangoes are bathed in oil and many secret masalas depending on your family in a large steel vessel and given a good shake so that they mix well! After carefully covering each and every mango with its own dress of chilly mix and oil, it is carefully poured over the Bharani! Every family member would have her own Bharani and the older the Bharani, the more senior or respected is the member! There is no immediate gratification here! You can taste the pickle only after some weeks! When you finally taste them they would be so soft that you can cut them with a butter knife! For now of course you can be satiated with the next best thing!
The best part for immediate gratification would be the steel vessel with the oil and chilly and salt! My grandmother would put hot steamy rice over it and give it a mix!
That pickle rice would be eaten with relish in between large sips of water by one and all! Whole time we would be making the sssh sound! It would be hot and spicy and having an unforgettable taste and of course amazing! Amazing also is the birthday celebrity Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw who may not be known as a pickle maker can save someone in a pickle!
Now remember those old jars and close the small store bought bottles of pickle which taste nothing like them and sleep!
Good Night!
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