‘Bazm-e-Aam': An evening of storytelling around mangoes

Mint

18 hours ago

If there is one fruit that evokes strong feelings among people across the country, it is the mango. From the aromatic Kesar and the golden-yellow Banganapalli to the Langra and the sweet Dasheri, different varieties of mangoes are grown and enjoyed across the country. While everyone talks about the fragrance and flavours, this summer fruit also has a rich cultural memory associated with it, often serving as a muse for poets.
Now, this shared sensorial memory is being celebrated by the Kashkol Collective with an evening titled 'Bazm-e-Aam', where storytelling—through music, dastans, poetry and food—takes centrestage. The collective was started earlier this year by Ambreen Shah and Ashhar Haque to create a collaborative decentralised platform that empowers artists to find performance spaces and build connections.
'Bazm-e-Aam' is the second event by the collective following the one in April, which honoured poet Daagh Dehlvi's legacy. According to Shah, the mango offers a shared inheritance. 'While some prefer the sweet Alphonso, the tang of Langra finds favour in another region. These friendly debates get passed on from one generation to the next. Mango certainly slices through geography. We want to celebrate what it means to us as a community,' she elaborates.
The evening will kickstart with a dastan performed by Haque, which traces the mango's journey from Buddhist parables to Mughal memoirs, colonial kitchens, and folk wisdom. Historian Sohail Hashmi, who has been taking people to the village of Rataul for almost a decade now to explore different varieties of mangoes, will be in conversation with writer-environmentalist Sopan Joshi to uncover the oral histories associated with the fruit. 'The shape of the mango, known as paisley, has inspired embroidery and wood carvings for centuries, while the tree's flowering season is connected with the arrival of the koel. From Babur to Shah Jahan, most Mughal emperors exhibited a fondness for the fruit and would have it preserved in large pots of honey, to be enjoyed through the year,' says Hashmi.
The evening will take a musical turn with a mix of ragas and folk songs by Dholak Rani, led by vocalist Shivangini Yeashu Yuvraj. The musical collective, rooted in the Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb, will evoke the emotional landscape associated with the mango. 'Bazm-e-Aam' will then culminate with a five-course 'Aam menu' curated by Sadaf Hussain. The chef-food historian will be presenting the dishes in their traditional avatar, while focusing on different regions of India.
So, the menu features dishes and relishes such as the aam kucha (raw mango chutney) from Bihar, a mango and mutton keema dish called achraj from Lucknow. Some other dishes include aam kathal ki sabji from Bihar, a chutney and salad from Manipur and a Gujarati-Parsi dish known as ras-no-fajeto, and aam ki kheer from Rajasthan. 'I want to explore the social fabric and use food as a conversation starter. There are so many varieties of mango, but we can use these differences to celebrate diversity,' adds Hussain.
Bazm-e-Aam will be held on 14 June at the India International Centre, New Delhi, 7 pm onwards.
Deepali Dhingra is a Delhi-based culture writer.