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Slap, tap and bite

Photo: E. Lakshmi Narayanan

Juicy delight Right answer to the summer heat

They say an average watermelon is ninety two per cent water, which, apart from slaking the thirst, makes us feel less-watery-than-thou vis a vis them.

You hold it like Sisyphus held the earth in his hands. You tap them with your fingers. Nobody knows what that tap gives, what goes on in its stuffy, seed-filled inside, or what profound knowledge these taps mean. You may have hard time figuring out what’s inside the watermelon, how it’s going to taste, whether it’s ripe or not. So, you tap them anyway lest you should be taken as somebody far too sophisticated for the lowly, humble watermelon. In case, if you don’t tap while haggling over the price, the hawker may think you are a nincompoop as far as watermelons are concerned.

Wisdom, of whatever variety, passes from buyer to buyer: you are advised to buy a watermelon that feels weightier than its looks suggest. We need real stuff inside. “We got to select those that feel heavy, not those that feel as if they are stuffed with cotton,” says Narayana Rao, a veteran of many summers who knows the ways of watermelons and their quirks. And as for tapping, “if you tap it and it comes out dull and weak, it’s mushy and soggy inside. If it comes out sort of sharp, it’s good.”

Grown on the sandy sheets of land on riverbanks, transported to different locations, and sold on sidewalks near your home, a heap of watermelons is a pleasant sight in the scorching heat. And, as the watermelon wisdom goes, when the thing is ripe, it loses its shine and the part that gets exposed to the sun feels slightly scraggy. The taste depends, by the looks of it, on the tone of the colour and texture of the rind. “Select those that come with thick greenish tinge, they taste sweeter and wholesome rather than those that have the green that looks faded,” says Jagannatha Reddy, another watermelon veteran.

The lowly watermelon is big on its benefits for the human body. Studies show it relaxes the blood vessels and improves the blood flow. It contains antioxidants, vitamins and many natural enhancers the body requires.

With its sturdy rind, manoeuvrable size, watermelon lends itself to the artistic side of the brain. Parvathi, a mother of two children, fears summer for the heat. Getting innovative with watermelons, she uses them for funny art. “First scoop out the rind out of it,” she explains her watermelon art for kids. “Then let kids slice patterns on surface. Cut in the middle, they could be decorated as bowls, finely filigreed and patterned. Let children carve into them as they please, may be make sculptures out of those slices, and enjoy the fun,” she says.

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