Some 35 years ago, Kunwarsinh and his brother Bharatsinh came in touch with Govindbhai Patel, then a beat supervisor with an experimental farm run by Lokbharati Sanosara near Babarwa. Patel gave them six Kesar saplings with detailed instructions on how to take care of them. At that time, the brothers were growing jowar and bajri on their 70 bigha farm at Sosiya, near the famous Alang Ship-Breaking Yard.

In three years, they had a crop of Kesar ready. The brothers invited Patel to have a look. His verdict: The fruit was sweeter, meatier, had harder pulp, and was richer in fragrance.

Sales were good. So the brothers gave up cultivating jowar and bajri; all 70 bighasthey used for cultivating Kesar. They laboured hard, kept on experimenting, developing their own formulae to make the plants grow faster and guard them against destruction by pests and inclement weather.

The formulae they have kept to themselves, but the success of their version of Kesar has meant that today several farmers in Alang, Manar, and Babarwa are turning horticulturists. They are going for mango and chikoo cultivation.

Bharatsinh's death 15 years ago put the entire burden on Kunwarsinh. But then, Bharatsinh had set the track for progress by opening an office in Bhavnagar Marketing Yard to buy and sell lemon. He also set up Shri Ram Fruit Company in Bhavnagar to market fruits, including, of course, their own variety of Kesar. The company sells Kesar saplings too. Farmers prefer to buy these saplings even though they cost Rs 150 each while the government nursery sells Kesar saplings for Rs 20.

Kesar mango cultivation in the area now cuts across caste lines, though orchard owners are mainlyPatels. But the best orchards belong to the Rajputs. Perhaps this is because the Gohel brothers divulged some of their secrets to their cousins, such as Dhirubha Gohel of Sosiya and Punjubha Gohel of Alang, who are now successful horticulturists in their own right.

According to Kunwarsinh, his experiment succeeded essentially because the soil of the region matches that of Gir. However, the Sosiya Kesar is sweeter, he claims, because the soil is richer in calcium, the source of sweetness in mango.

Among the secrets of caring for the crop that Kunwarsinh made public was that tulsi leaves could be used to keep off fruit flies. But with several other farmers claiming that they had discovered this method, Kunwarsinh is reticent about his other formulae.

One problem Kunwarsinh has not been able to solve is protecting the fruit against Madhyo, a black outgrowth on half-ripe mangoes, which spoils the beauty of the fruit.

The orchards and the fruit business have made the Gohel family millionairesseveral times over. But Kunwarsinh is not resting. He is obsessed with trying to grow Ratnagiri mangoes in Sosiya. Again, he wants his version to beat the original.