As we grow old, we have a collection of a bunch of memories and experiences. I am going to share a story from my childhood which revolves around our beloved mango garden. It’s located in Lucknow, my home town. We still have this garden and I wish it remains there forever so that my kids and their kids can also enjoy the moments I had during my childhood.

Coming to my story, we used to have a summer vocation mostly towards the end of a school year and this was the same time when mangoes start fruiting. I am still confused if those days were so special because of vocations or because of mangoes but I am quite sure that the mangoes had a big role in making them special. Since it was a long vocation, we had a good gathering of kids at home (including cousins, friends, and relatives). We used to spend the whole day in the garden and play different games and sometimes invent new games 😊.

We used to try different ways to consume baby mangoes and raw mangoes as a snack and once the mangoes start to ripen, it used to become our regular meal (they are quite filling and tasty too 😊) and there was no need to abandon our fun and go home until extreme hunger or something urgent.

We have more than a 100 varieties of mangoes in the garden and about 500 trees in the garden, so there was a range of different tastes to try and I am sure I haven’t tried every variety as of now. Most of the trees are about 50-60 years old and still serving us with some of the tastiest mangoes on the earth. My family has done some great work in replacing the plants which decayed with the new plants and protecting the garden in this era of industrialization.

Other than serving with the fruits the garden has given us so much like the fresh air, a nice and calm place to sit and relax when there are no mangoes, for me this is another great contribution of our garden in my life. I used to sit for hours just thinking and planning my life ahead, the ambience was so calm and meditating that sometimes I used to like the garden more during off seasons (as nobody is around during those times).

I still miss the aroma in the ambience when the mangoes start blooming during February-March. It, for sure, was a huge topping on the wonderful climate in those days in north India (Spring season). I haven’t been able to be there since about last 15 years during those times. But whenever I am home, I do go to the garden, sit there for hours, again thinking and planning my life 😊.

I wish every time I go home, I can breathe in the fresh air of my mango garden and forget about the polluted roads of the life outside the garden 😊.

Stories