Chennai: With the temperature soaring with every passing day, leaving our throats parched and longing for something ‘cool’, the availability of nungu or the ice apple on the roadside allows us to take a break from the sweltering heat.
To beat the scorching heat, nungu is the best option as the soft and juicy fruit not only quenches one’s thirst but is also good for the health. Nungu is being sold by the vendors on the roadside since last week and it has already started attracting people.
Speaking to News Today, Kumaran, a Nungu-seller at Venkatesa Agraharam Road, close to the Sai Baba temple says, “Just a few days ago the season for Nungu had begun and we started selling it. The sale so far has been good and it is expected to get better in the coming weeks.”
Kumaran and his brother Murugan travel all the way from Kalpakkam to sell the ice apples. “This year we came here for the first time last Sunday and now we have come back again. Whenever we get loads of nungu in our village, we come here and start the sale,” adds Kumaran.
Kumaran and Murugan are basically farmers who work in the fields in their village during the remaining part of the year. During summer, especially when nungu arrives, they come to the city to sell. They are coming to Mylapore to sell nungu for the seventh year running.
“We do this only for two months since April and May is the season. That too, only till mid-May we get to sale many ice apples. Towards the fag end of May, the yield decreases and we will sell the remaining in places close to our village itself,” says Kumaran.
He is selling it at the rate of Rs. 20 for four pieces. Speaking about the sales, Murugan says, “We have been coming to Mylapore for the past seven years to sell Nungu and every season there will be a lot of people buying it. This year too we had lot of people come forward to buy it. We hope that the sales would improve in the upcoming week.”