New mango variety named after Amit Shah

Malihabad (Uttar Pradesh): Celebrated mango grower, Haji Kalimullah, popularly known as 'Mango Man, has named a new variety of mango after Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

Kalimullah said that he has been impressed by the personality of Shah "who possess the ability to weave the social fabric and bring people on to one platform".

The new mango variety that is being named after Shah is both "good in weight and taste" and will be called "Shah" mango. The Shah mango is ready and is likely to ripen in the coming days when it will enter the market.

In 2015, Haji Kalimullah, a Padma Shri awardee, had named a 'royal variety of mango' after Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "It is my wish that I can offer him the king of fruits myself and I am confident that he will love it," Kalimullah had said.

The Modi mango has a good taste and is also beautiful to look at with the fruit skin bearing lines of crimson and giving it a very rare and appealing hue.

"All those who have tasted it, be it officials or the connoisseur of the fruit, have found it very delicious and delectable," Kalimullah, who has orchards in the mango belt of Malihabad on the outskirts of the state capital Lucknow, said.

This variety, he said, is a cross between Kolkata's 'Husn-e-Aara' and Lucknow's 'Dussehri'.

He was expectedly delighted when the Prime Minister said in a recent interview that he relished eating mangoes.

Kalimullah is famous for growing scores of mango varieties and naming them after celebrities. The noted mango grower has a particular tree bearing fruits of 300 different varieties.

Kalimullah, who had earlier named his mango varieties after Aishwarya Rai and Sachin Tendulkar, christens different varieties after people who have excelled in their areas of work so that they are always remembered.

It is not just Kalimullah who has named his varieties but also several dignitaries have helped him in finding names for his new varieties of the fruit.

Former Uttar Pradesh Governor T.V. Rajeswar had named a beautiful mango having two coloured skin, pulp and taste as 'Anarkali' and also awarded him with a cash prize of Rs 25,000.

On how he develops the varieties, Kalimullah said unlike others who develop it through grafting process, he crosses flowers and sows their seeds as every seed is different from the other.

Nevertheless this is a very arduous process and the success rate is low but the ones that succeed are worth spending time and energy as they grow into rare samples, he said.