Locomotoring

Jamuns, a seasonal purple berry

This monsoon season in Delhi, I tasted jamuns after nearly two decades. As a child, picking ripe jamuns used to be a pleasant way of killing time. It often involved sneaking into a neighbor’s yard when the elders were dozing off in the summer heat. It also meant getting up on precarious fences or branches to reach up the tree for a handful of jamuns. I saw some street urchins doing the same the other day; the girl appeared to be as old as I was then.

Jamun is a berry the size of a large black grape. It is purple skinned like eggplant with a solitary fat seed inside. It has a pleasant taste of tannins like a full bodied Cabernet wine and is often a little sweet and a little sour. Best enjoyed chilled with a pinch of salt. Unlike mangoes that span the hottest quarter, jamuns are available for two to three weeks during the monsoons.  If in Delhi, the freshest jamuns can be purchased in Connaught Place (CP) where the vendors pick the berries  from jamun trees lining the streets of CP.