The Mango season!

Last year this time I was lamenting over the fact that my son will never know the pleasures of savoring the most celebrated tropical fruit ever – the mango! It was almost a herculean task to get him eat a slice of mango. However, what I hadn’t realized was what could not be accomplished by a mother’s cajoling was effortlessly done by a grandparent’s pampering! Towards the end of the season last year, Abhay’s maternal grandpa had managed to feed him some luscious alphonso slices and apparently he couldn’t get enough of the king of fruits!  But what I hadn’t expected at all was that my little one who has an aversion against fruits in general, was in fact eagerly waiting for the mango season this year! Last year, Abhay just stood by watching us relishing mangoes, this year however he was the first one to dig in! But the only flipside is that he refuses to eat any other fruit other than the mango!

 To celebrate this rare change of taste, I had to read a mango story for my mango lover! Last year Tulika brought out a magnificent book titled “"The Sweetest Mango"”, but this year though I couldn’t lay my hands on any book, I found a delightful story in the May issue of Highlights Genies by one of our favorite authors Nandini Nayar titled “Meera and Kiran and the Mango story”. While enjoying the best mangoes of the season, Meera wonders where do mangoes come from, Kiran replies that mangoes come from the shop, Meera further quizzes as to where does the shopkeeper fetches mangoes from to which Ma replies from the trees. Kiran seems puzzled and wonders if there is a tree in the shop ( Abhay loved the illustration of a shopkeeper perched on a tree selling mangoes!) Assuming that all trees grow mangoes, Meera declares that she cant wait for their tree to start growing mangoes too when Ma clarifies that their tree is a coconut tree which can never grow mangoes. So Meera and Kiran set out to grow a mango tree in their garden which Kiran promises to take care and share his food. Ma then gives them a one-on-one on the essentials of gardening which the children follow to a T and before they know it, they are relishing the mangoes from their garden! An informative story to narrate as your little ones gorges on the king of fruits! Enjoy the rest of the mango season everyone!