Tropical Fruit Salad

When I was working in Delhi, I used to live in Green Park for a year. My office was a stone’s throw away from my place. Green Park, you’d know if you’re a Delhi-ite is quite renowned for its fresh fruits. We had a fruit vendor at every block and all of has had our own favourite. The one that was my favourite was so because he had the widest possible fruit spread possible and he even gave me discounts if I loaded my basket. Now the biggest boon of living at a distance of 100 yards from office was that every alternate Summer evening I would make a trip to the fruit vendor sometime around 6.30, pack my bag with 2 each of mangoes, pears, plums, kiwis, peaches, apricots, apples, a bouquet of litchis and maybe a melon (watermelon, muskmelon anything!) They also sold something called Ramphal, a deep yellowish orange fruit, whose English name I haven’t yet been able to decipher.

Those were days that I was very conscious about my health and despite coming back home at 12.30-1 at night, my day used to begin at 6.30 am. A quick brush and a glass of lemon-honey water later I would get into my tracks and out for a jog at the Hauz Khas Lake. Aah, bliss it was. Two hours of unadulterated workout, gazing at the lake and roaming around aimlessly in the gardens. Hauz Khas Lake is and probably will always remain my favourite place in Delhi.
Back by 8.30 I would now embark to make a “healthy” breakfast for myself, which would most often consist of a fruit smoothie or a bowl of fresh fruit salad. Out would come my chopping board and knife and parking myself in front of the TV to watch the morning news I’d chop away the fruits procured the previous evening for my day’s quota of vitamins and minerals. Needless to say I did not have an oven at my disposal so my urge to bake with whatever I found at arm’s length couldn’t be met.