Fruit, Weather, and the Airports

I was elated yesterday to walk by a fruit stand and see that queen of fruits making her appearance on the scene, Her Majesty the Mango.  The vendor said they were from the state of Kerala, which I hope is true, because that means a steady supply from now until they come into season here in May.  I will henceforth begin my 1-Mango-a-Day (minimum) diet, and am very glad I recently purchased a blender for mango lassis, thanks for the push, Abba!  If you look at this picture there is also another fruit that resembles a golden tomato in size and color, but is a fruit with a sweet/sour taste that they call a raspberry or a gooseberry, depending on who you ask.  It tastes like neither to me, but does taste a little like a fruit I had in Peru that was wonderful, which they called a lúcuma, I believe.  [Inscrutable Panda, is that correct?] It’s always fun to try a new tropical fruit.  

The weather has been just gorgeous here, like a great late-May week in Iowa without the tornadoes or rain, but  rain and hailstorms are predicted in the next 48 hours, which is rare here, but not a big deal to me.  Or so I thought.  A news article mentioned this is the time the mango blossoms are coming on the trees, and they were in danger.  I thought I could escape the worry of nature ruining my favorite fruits when I left the late-spring freeze of Iowa tormenting the apple orchards, but no, here we are again in the cruel, fickle grips of nature.  Speaking of which, this morning I was awoken with a rumbling sound and then a shaking.  I thought it was my bedmate shaking his leg for some reason, but then I heard some of the furniture shaking and moving.  It was an earthquake, and it was over quickly.  I was just reading a travel magazine’s alluring article about San Francisco and it’s incredible food scene, and fantasizing living there for a while, but then thinking we would be at the mercy of the earthquake gods.  I guess I don’t need to go that far to experience the shaking.

Finally, there is a phenomena here which bears describing, and it regards the security at the airports.  There are several, not one, security checks, where you are patted down quite thoroughly, as you enter. Quite thoroughly. But, you run the gauntlet and then they let you get on the plane.  However, if you should want to LEAVE the airport, now that’s another matter.  I have had occasion to want to leave the airport for various reasons the last couple of weeks, (not the least of which is to escape the quibbling of the airlines on who should have to pay for our rebooking because of a delay) and I’m here to tell you it’s harder to get OUT of an airport than get IN.  You must show a print out of your ticket, which they call an e-ticket, to get in, and they can’t imagine why anyone would want to leave their airport once they are granted admission.  I was stopped by several people when I wanted to leave the airport, and with my nonexistent Hindi skills, I had to try to find someone who could help the people understand I wasn’t a terrorist. Maybe I should have just said I wasn't carrying any bombs?  Maybe not. I wanted to tell them they might want to consider checking people’s admission a little closer, because I wasn’t supposed to be let IN the airport on a couple of those occasions.  I restrained myself.  Airport security is looney everywhere in the world for different reasons, and the recent bombings in Hyderabad won’t help lessen the security in India, so be forewarned:  once you’re in the airport, they like you to stay, whether you want to or not.