Aam
Hindi– noun. Ordinary,
Hindi– noun. Mango
A Hindi word that encompasses within its two mere syllables, a multitude of meanings. Aam roughly translates to both, the ‘ordinary’ and ‘mango’. There is a reason why mango is the national fruit of India; it is an extraordinary fruit savoured by the ordinary people, it comes as no surprise that the ‘king of fruits’ receives a warm welcome during the searing subtropical summers. Consuming a mango is a form of art, people practice and perfect strategies to not only devour the fleshy fruit, but also to scoff it down without wasting even a little; be it polishing the peel clean by scraping it with your incisors, or chewing at the seed smothered with juice until the yellow gives way to white fibres. Feasting on a mango does not conjure images of etiquette and neat modus operandi; the nectar slips from between fingers, flowing down the forearm, bits of flesh clinging to moustache hair and the corners of lips- it feels like something that should be indulged in, in the solitary of one’s own company- the pressures of propriety come in the way of guilty pleasure. However, mango, in all its glory tends to bind people together with its pulpy goodness, forcing laughter after housing bits of itself in spots and crevices one can’t even begin to imagine. After all, when it has been over two and a half decades of marriage, love is about seeking joy in the aam, and in the simpleton-sticky-affair with an aam.
