For mango lovers, the wait for juicy Dussehri, flavoured Langda, Chausa and Safeda might be over, but Haji Kalimullah Khan, the mango man of India, has something more and new to offer on his mango platter this time around.
He has come out with the 'Shah mango,' a new variety developed and named after newly-appointed Union Home Minister Amit Shah. Shah mango is not the only one but Padamshree Haji Kalimullah, 79, has many such varieties to his credit.
In fact, he has mastered the cultivation of hybrids and has named them after a number of politicians and celebrities including former president APJ Abdul Kalam, former PM late Atal Bihari Vajpayee, PM Modi as Namo, Akhilesh Yadav, master blaster Sachin Tendulkar, cine stars Amitabh Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai and Nargis to name a few.
The noted mango cultivator, based in Malihabad, the mango hub of Lucknow, only dreams to make this world a better place. He keeps contributing to the endeavour in his own way by developing new varieties. He believes in the concept of keep inspiring the world by those who have stood out in the crowd through their good deeds. Kalimullah has a distinct philosophy behind growing hybrid varieties named after VIPs.
He claims that he tries to match the traits of the personalities in the variety he develops and names it after the biggies "to make the legends immortal". Why Amit Shah? "The life and diligence of Amit Shah inspires. He has positivity in his personality and possesses the ability to unite people on one platform,-" says Haji Kalimullah.
He says he has tried to match the variety of mango named after Amit Shah with his heavy personage and healthy and of good taste. It will rather be known as 'Shah Mango.' "Like a ruler's personality should be the blend of strictness and sweetness laced with humility. So I have tried to develop the Shah mango which will look 'portly' as Shah and will taste sweet with a peculiar fragrance inspired by Shah's attribute of unifying opposing forces, weaving the social fabric and diligence with which he has put his party emphatically on a pedestal," says Kalimullah.
Satiating the curiosity further, Kalimullah says Shah Mango is a cross between Kolkata's 'Husn-e-Aara' and the famous Lucknow's 'Dussehri'. These mangoes are now ripening and are soon going to be available in the market. He had developed a "slender" and "beautiful" mango, Yogi mango named after Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in the season after Yogi Adityanath took over as UP CM.
Kalimullah has inherited a mango orchard spread over five acres area at Malihabad in Lucknow and has been into mango cultivation since 1957. His pursuit to develop varieties named after personalities began when he grew different varieties of mango on a single century-old tree in his orchard in 1987. He has also named the mangoes grown on this tree after his family members, who all were mango growers. He is credited with growing 300 different varieties of mangoes on a single tree.
