AAM HARVEST: NO FOOTPRINTS

“Achhay, achhay (take it, take it),” Tharu Jaskani, one of the 27-acre orchard workers plucking unripe mangoes by hand, shouts from atop a 30-foot-high tree. He expertly maintains his balance while hopping from one branch to the next to pick the fruit expertly and quickly, then drops it for Amjad, his fellow labourer, to catch.

When you enter the orchard around 11 a.m., an all-encompassing sweet smell of unripe mangoes greets you from every corner. Since the morning, the labourers — mostly young or middle-aged men — have been busy with pattaee (the Sindhi word for mango harvesting).

We meet four to five workers involved in this activity. Underfoot are mounds of sweet-smelling unripe mangoes.