An ode to the beloved GOAN MANGO

The alarm is ringing. It is 8 am. I hate to get up when the weather forces you to remain under the sheets. But then, it dawned on me that my editor has asked me to meet a nonagenarian at Fontainhas. Fernando do Rego who had written a book As Mangas de Goa, (The Mangoes of Goa) ‑ in Portuguese and English. Fontainhas is a heritage area and locating a house is never simple. The Regos are both in their 90’s. Calling them up for the location was not easy. But to my good luck I found a visitor to Rego’s home, Andre, to guide me to their place. As Andre and myself get acquainted, Fernando do Rego is being helped by his wife to get dressed for a photo (I had changed my desk job for a photographer, for a day).

As the Regos walked in, both with walkers, they greeted me Bom Dia and I had to explain to them in my broken Portuguese that I can understand but cannot speak fluently. Fernando said it would be comfortable to sit on the sofa and Andre helped him sit and strike a pose for a picture....not from a professional photographer though.

Since Fernando could not sit long he had to be helped to his feet and then both the Regos excused themselves to their bedroom. However, before he left us Fernando posed a question, “Is it going to be published on Sunday’s Herald Review?” I assured him that it would.

Returning to Rego’s book about The Mangoes of Goa, the first part is in Portuguese and the second in English. Like the mangoes which are normally sold in dozens, the book also has a dozen chapters besides the Acknowledgements, Foreword and Bibliography.

Fernando acknowledges his parents Dr Antonio Augusto de Rego and Helena Correia Afonso de Rego for cultivating their coconut trees, educating their children and instilling into them an appreciation for their mangoes.

He praised the Director Superior de Agronomia Lisbon, who gave him the honour of presenting his work in the context of Expo ’98 in Lisbon.

He is grateful to Dr Carlos Monjardino, president of Fundacao Oriente for helping him publish his book.

The Foreword is written by Luis Filipe FR Thomaz from Ribandar. ‘Therefore, we must rejoice with the publication of the present book by Engineer Fernando Rego, who joins his knowledge as an agronomist with his practice as Director of Directorate of Agriculture of Goa to his historical researches, the results of which are now accessible to the public who are not specialists, in simple language. Here we have something of his extensive knowledge about the delicious mangoes of Goa; which even includes the recipe of a kind of mango pickle inherited from an aunt that he shared (verbatim).

Luis Filipe recalls how he met Fernando at an Indo-Portuguese History seminar in Lisboa for the first time and how he came to know some of Rego’s relatives – Dr Joao Filipe de Rego and both his priest brothers Fr Renato and Fr Vasco do Rego.

As a conclusion to his foreword Luis Felipe writes ‘The history of the world would have been quite different, if Alexander the Great, instead of invading India through Punjab, had disembarked in Goa during the mango season; his soldiers would certainly have eaten such an amount of them that the whole army would become unable to fight. And Alexander would have lost the war. (verbatim).

In the chapter ‘The mango in Goa’s Agriculture’ Rego explains in the words of a Jesuit priest, who says that coconut is the prime crop for the Goan economy and that the shade of mango and jackfruit trees, contribute to the maintenance of solid moisture because the coconut grove is not irrigated. After the coconut, the mangoes were always the source of supplementary revenue for the bhatcar (owner).

Rego mentions of the several authors of books who wrote about the mango. One research, he says, is the discovery of 1115 angiosperms belonging to 657 genera distributed in 146 families. Of these 891 species (538 genera and 124 families) are dicotyledons and 224 species (119 genera and 22 families) are monocotyledons.

Describing some of the varieties of Goan mango, Rego touches the Malcorada, Hilario, Monserrate Vermelho or Monserrate de Salcete, Afonso or Alfonso, Alphonso, Ratnagiri Alphonso, Udgo and Xavier.

Among the other chapters, Rego describes the methods of grafting mangoes, The Mango in Literature, the Goan Mango expansion and the Mango in the Goan poetry printing some poems by Manohar Rai Sardesai, Bernardo Pinto Pereira and Thomaz Mourao Garcez Palha.

All of us eat mangoes when the season (March to May) of this delicious fruit of Goa is here. But few of us, maybe with the exception of Malcorada and Monserrate and perhaps Malgesa to some extent, may recognise these varieties. The Mangoes of Goa, by Fernando do Rego, will throw a lot of light on the other varieties of Goan mangoes.