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Raju Ganapathy

Others

4.4  

Raju Ganapathy

Others

The Mango Tree

The Mango Tree

3 mins
819


She got the mango seed planted a few days before her first delivery. Then a week after her delivery she saw the first signs of the mango plant. Her son and the mango plant grew together. She would nurture them both equally well. When her son joined a school, the gardener grafted the mango plant. Soon the mango tree started giving fruits. She made pickles of the tiny mango, the raw mango was made into mango juice(panna), eaten raw with salt and pepper, grated into a pickle or a morabba or a tangy and sweet chatni, the fruit was eaten fresh, made into a preserve or made into a pulp and dried to be eaten long after the season. Her son took to climbing the mango tree when he was able and delighted her with all the monkey tricks.


The son grew up and so did the mango tree, fully grown giving shade throughout the year besides giving fruit in the season. What separated them was the marriage, the mango tree remained single. She was invited to spend some time with her son in the city. She dutifully went but city life was devoid of nature. She felt herself given to nature. Except for sleeping and cooking, she spent most of her time in the garden commuting with nature. Her garden gave her all the fruits and vegetables she required for her needs. She was known in the village as thotamma (garden mother).


Once she was ill but refused treatment except for the nattu vaidyam (native herbal treatment). It kept her going. That was when she noticed that the mango tree had also developed some disease. The fruits reduced and slowly stopped. It seemed to her the mango tree was mimicking her in her illness.


Soon the illness consumed her. The mango tree also died within a week. Her son came and did the rituals. He arranged to sell the house with the garden to a charitable society that wanted to build a school in the plot. Soon the school started functioning.


The gardener planted a new mango sapling. He recalled planting the first mango plant too when he was young. What sweet and juicy fruits it gave. He always got his share from the mother. He remembered the graft he did on the mango plant too. He too recalled how her son used to climb the mango tree and delight in that. He felt the school children could play with the tree too as her son did. They would also consume the fruits.


Thotamma remained in his memory and he felt that her soul now resides in the mango plant. Tears flooded his eyes and fell as he watered the plant now and then.  


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