If you've never lived in India, or, to be precise, north India, somewhere not urban enough to exclude pushcart-toting vendors (various wallahs, as our English masters used to call them) from the landscape, you have missed one of the most sublime joys of the Indian summer. It goes by the humble name of phaalsa and is a tiny little bluish-reddish-purple bruised-looking berry that grows on trees in clusters.
I Googled phaalsa but as often happens with phonetic spelling, it didn't throw up much. Then I went to the ole' Bible at home, Amma's ancient copy of Nutritive Value of Indian Foods (1976 Reprint), by C. Gopalan, B.V. Rama Sastri and S.C. Balasubramanian (yes, apparently Tam-Brahms got together and made a joint effort!) first published in 1971 by the National Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad, under the National Council of Medical Research. This book was part of her curriculum while she was studying to finish a B.Sc. (Bachelor of Science) in Home Science, and has long been my polyglot family's way to cross-translate names of fruits, and spices between Tamil, English, Hindi, Malayam and occasionally even Gujarati, Assamese, Oriya, Bengali or Marathi (my grandad spent some time in Orissa, Assam and Gujarat; the rest is stuff picked up from here and there over the years ).
The phaalsa is just as much a part of living in Lucknow as travelling in a rickshaw, Hazratganj, chikan and the bad shaayari that all kids learn in school here.
// The pictures were taken in my garden. The voiceover is my mom! Must try to record the real thing sometime!
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