We've had inspired entries for the blogathon and after sharing some delicious aamras (friends of Tulika *hint*) with us at work, Sandhya shares her mango story...
Mangoes always remind of my little cousin – who is now not
so little anymore. When we were growing up in seventies Madras, our backyard
was full of mango trees. Smooth banganapalli, delicious eaten green,
scrumptious eaten golden yellow.
Me when I was 15 |
The fruits would lie piled up on hay in the store room, with
our grandmother checking on them every day, turning them this way and that,
rescuing the ones at the bottom, bringing them up for air.
During school time, we cousins lived in our own homes. Come
the summer holidays, our cousins from abroad would visit and all of us
congregated at our home to do ‘dingana’ as my dad would say. But whatever we
did, wherever we went, the time after lunch was always spent at home, upstairs.
And the time after lunch was always for mangoes.
My little cousin, all of five, and then six, seven was
deputed every year to serve us our mangorial repast. And was she proud!
My little cousin |
First, she’d go to the kitchen and pick up a small round
plate. Then she’d go to the store room and pick out two ripe mangoes. Then
she’d wash them clean, place them on the plate, and carry them carefully all
the way up to present to cousin number one. With a pussy cat smile on her face.
Then she’d go back downstairs to the kitchen, pick up a
plate. The store room, pick out two ripe numbers. Wash them. Clean them. Carry
them. Carefully, all the way up to cousin number two.
Cousins one and two would then compare and contrast. They
had to all be the same size or down she’d go again, balancing the rejected
fruits, to pick out fresh, new ones of a size! And so, one by one, there’d be a
plate with two mangoes for each.
Sometimes there’d be six of us, sometimes more. Never less.
And after the smiling service, my little cousin would sit
down, push back her frock and sink her teeth into her own two banganapallis. She
truly earned them.
Every day. All through the summer vacation.
Sandhya Rao
Nice! Where is your little cousin now? Would be great if she chimes in as well.
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