Tulika Publishers: I *Heart* Mangoes blogathon: Winners and a round-up!

The mango blogathon has come to an end. In case you missed writer Malavika Shetty's write-up on her mango story, here it is. Not to forget Ajanta Guhathakurta's delightful illustrations which have featured across the posts.

The book, ladies and gentleman, has arrived and it looks delicious. You can place your orders on our website. Like all our picture books, it's available in nine languages: English, Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Telugu, Marathi, Gujarati and Bengali.

Vijaysree Venkatraman (read her entry here), bloggers Sandhya, R's Mom and Itchingtowrite are the winners of this blogathon and they will receive a free copy of The Sweetest Mango.:)

Congratulations!

All participants are entitled to a special discount: you can buy the book (Rs.135) for Rs.100. (Sweet deal, no?) Write to us at tulikabooks@vsnl.com to avail the offer.

We did a round-up of some entries earlier. Here's the second lot, for those who want to indulge in different mango moods:

"Summer vacations meant a lot of things to me as a child, but most of all, it meant Mangoes with a capital M," writes Sandhya in her post, Mango Memories.

Fiddler on the Roof goes down her mango memory lane in Mango Diaries.

"...sometimes it made me wonder if the mangoes really tasted that good only because Appa is so perfect with the knife," says Padmashri in her post, Mangoes.

Varsha offers up a delightful recipe along with her mango memory in her post, Mango thieves.

"We would find stones, long sticks and bougainvillea stems long and strong enough to bring down even the most reluctant mango," writes Saudha in her post, Mango Season.

Then there's R's Mom's inspired mango post, aptly-titled Missing the Mango Mania. And finally, Shruti Rao's mysteriously titled From Darkness to Light. And Pinashpinash's Milkertainment.

This entry was a day late, but the refrain Mangoes, mangoes, mangoes... made us put it up with the rest.:)

We also received a couple of responses by email. This first is from R Akila:

Mango-the king of fruits does reminisce me of my childhood days. My summer holidays were mostly spent in karaikudi (my grandma's place)where all my cousins meet every year. The Mango orchard in the backyard was the place where we hang out. Climbing the mango tree was always fun because the winner is blessed with an extra mango."Thoratti" a long wooden stick with a hook was the equipment used to pluck the ripe ones. A Chettiar's garden is incomplete without this equipment. Sneaking into the "ukkuranam"(Chettinad term for store room)to taste the various mango recipes was my daily ritual.

To list a few of my grandma's recipe "Maavathal,maavadu,avakkai oorugaa,thanneer Panthal ooruga". As I write I can feel my tongue tingling to taste all these mango stuffs. When I compare my childhood days with my kids,I really pity them for their life is too mechanical and cyber oriented.All they know about mango is that it's a yummy summer fruit which can be bought in fruit shops. Nowadays Mangoes from known sources are the best way to enjoy the fruit to avoid repenting later. I would always advice each individual to maintain a small garden in their houses and grow the fruits and vegetables the organic way, to get rid of the health hazards caused by the fertilizers.

And here's a poem about the mango season from Srividhya Venkat:

Summer is here! Summer is here!

What would you like to do?

When summer is here, holidays appear

There is fun to last all day through.

Waking up late and lazing in bed,

Playing with friends at will,

Swimming and tennis keep the fun ahead.

But with one thing we never get our fill.

And that is the king who makes us weak,

We never get enough of him,

Different colours and varieties we seek,