Please eat without complaining

It’s obvious that if warnings about chemicals in fruit appear every year, it must be impossible for the government to monitor this and prevent it from happening. Representation pic/istock

I stumbled upon an interesting article a week ago, with the headline ‘Six Easy Ways To Find Out If Your Mangoes Are Chemical-Free.' Naturally, I clicked through because I was curious about what was and wasn't safe for consumption. The article urged readers in India to check the fruit's skin colour carefully, then smell it to try and detect anything artificial, leave it if it felt too soft, look for the presence of too many spots, and finally take a bite to see if it left a bitter aftertaste.

This felt like a lot of things to watch out for, and I wondered if the average housewife (because most Indian men won't condescend to visit a market) had the time to go through all of these steps before making a purchase. Once I was done reading, similar articles began to crop up, such as one titled ‘Natural vs Chemically Ripened Mangoes: Easy Ways to Spot the Difference.' It felt as if a lot of publications had put in the time and effort to warn Indian consumers about fruit.

Anyone who has worked in a newsroom in India anytime over the past three decades will tell you that these warnings aren't new. Like reports of waterlogging at Andheri subway, they arrive every year: thousands of words from experts warning buyers not to judge fruit by its colour alone. The concerns don't change either, perennially rising over chemically ripened mangoes and the callous use of calcium carbide.

This time around, though, there were a few more articles because Japan suspended imports of fresh Indian mangoes for the 2026 season. Apparently, quarantine inspectors in that country identified deficiencies in fumigation and disinfection procedures. Fruit could only be sold to Japanese customers if shipments complied with strict quarantine requirements, including facility inspections and mandatory treatment to control pests. Shortly after that slap on the wrists, Nepal banned the import of mangoes and several other fruits from India too, after border quarantine inspectors detected excessive levels of chemical pesticides.

I must admit these reports annoyed me because they implied that the lives of Japanese and Nepalese people were somehow more valuable than those of Indians. It implied that the government of India didn't care as much about its own citizens, which anyone who has lived in India will dispute. All Indians know how much the government cares about every human being. Yes, thousands of us may perish every day on account of malnutrition, failing infrastructure, adulterated medicine, overcrowded trains, or runaway buses, but statistics alone don't make foreign governments more caring.

As far as I see it, the problem lies with people who like fruit and how finicky they have always been. Lovers of mangoes in particular have always been insufferable. They argue about things like their favourite varieties, the best time of year to consume them, and what the ‘King of Fruits' is, as if that's a real thing. It's also why they get all hot and bothered by chemicals and pesticides instead of just shutting up and eating. These are the kind of people who scream about accountability and assume the government is responsible for everything that goes wrong. If they have their way, Parliament may have to introduce an agency of some sort to vet all produce and make sure it's fit for human consumption. It sounds like an unnecessary expense because that money can easily be used for more important things like putting up coloured LED lighting on the Atal Setu.

It's obvious that if warnings about chemicals in fruit appear every year, it must be impossible for the government to monitor this and prevent it from happening. It's possible that foreign governments also allow their citizens to eat adulterated fruit, and we just don't know about this because their journalists aren't as diligent as Indian journalists are. It's possible that calcium carbide is being used for ripening all around the world, and it's just a few countries that are complaining about it. Indians should rise above this childishness and learn to swallow everything down, pesticides and all, because that is how people become stronger and more resilient. It's common sense, if one stops to think about it.

There are many things a government ought to be responsible for, but safe food shouldn't be one of them because a little adulteration toughens us all up. Also, no one's looking at the bright side of this, which is that the Japanese and Nepalese have left more mangoes for the rest of us.

When he isn't ranting about all things Mumbai, Lindsay Pereira can be almost sweet. He can be contacted at www.lindsaypereira.com
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