ANGEL FOOD | Watermelon's Journey

On - 24 Mar 2009, 0010 hrs IST, JANARDHAN ROYE. The Times of India

I saw the season's first watermelons on my dog walk the other evening. I could hardly believe that Bangalore was already heading into hot sweaty
days. But there they were. Stacks of them, the sweet, crunchy juicy treat. "From Pondicherry, saar'', responded the vendor in a folded lungee, "Twelve rupees a kilo''. I hadn't seen this man before. But come summer, the spot on the pavement bordering an empty corner site gets taken by new sets of people. They set up shop under the cool shade of a pongamia pinnata tree, and beckon thirsty city-slickers with the tempting watermelon. Customers, invariably young working women winding their way home or men on two-wheelers and such, pull up to buy it or gorge on it on-site. For, the `food of the angels' is most tempting on sweltering days. The delicious red stuff is packed with vitamins, fibre, potassium and other nutrients. "It's low in calories too,'' went on a professorial-type treating a small girl from the playground. The chubby-cheeked one had eyes only for the large slice in hand. Absent-mindedly, she went "Huh, huh, thatha'' as she sunk little teeth into the crispy stuff. Like the little girl, other customers too were throwing inhibition to the winds, and went about freely spitting the seeds.

Seeds discarded? No way. They seem to have a life of their own. There in that safe and fertile haven under the spathodea tree, they plan their next move. Long after the vendor and his gang have rolled up their lungees and scooted, the seeds will take root, germinate and become dark green vines to sprawl all over the loose soil. Then tiny yellow flowers will sprout, to innocently flutter in the breeze. In time, they'll develop into watermelons. In the mid-1800s, David Livingstone sighted watermelons in the Kalahari Desert. Fascinated, the great explorer observed that the Bushmen of the region treated them with utmost respect. To the parched denizens, they were a vital source of water. The watermelon story, of course, begins much before Livingstone and goes back in time even before the mighty pharaohs. I couldn't help looking at the botanical family known as Curcurbitacae in new light that evening. This was one gritty, hard-working creation. With a little help from bees for pollination, and factoring in challenges of the day, it seemed ready for the next part of its journey into the future.