Mango season is here.

For those who don’t know, mango is one of India’s most loved fruits. We wait an entire year for its arrival. And finally, the season had arrived. The waiting was over.

So today morning, I grabbed my keys and impatiently took off on my scooter to buy mangoes.

After I was done, I stopped at a tea stall and parked my scooter nearby, with the polythene bag containing my beloved mangoes hanging on the handle.

And while I was taking sips from the tea,
in that moment…..everything felt so perfect.

Here I am… on this small planet in this vast universe, taking sips from my most favorite drink, and by the time I get home, I’ll have my delicious mangoes.

Life felt so perfect.

What could possibly go wrong?

What game could life possibly play here?
.
.
.

Little did I know…

The game had already begun the moment I parked my scooter
near the tea stall.

Because at a distance, a group of cows had already set the plot of the most perfect & biggest heist of the century.

“The Mango Heist.”

Yes readers… their eyes were on my mangoes.

As per their plan, first was sent the smallest among them.

Its only job…
To tear the polythene bag.

And it succeeded with flying colors.

Before I could even react or understand what was happening, all my mangoes were on the ground.

And then we all ran.
Me towards the mangoes.
Them towards the mangoes.

At the same time.

And it looked like the job of two of them was to keep my feet away from the ground.
Bcoz that’s exactly what happened.
And believe me readers, it was one hell of a sight.

I was literally in the air.

And while I was in the air, I swear I saw one of them making a victory gesture from its face.

By now, I had also managed to gather the attention of a few nearby people.
It felt less like real life and more like a movie shooting.

Long story short…

I lost the battle.

Terribly.

All my mangoes were taken.

By force.
.
.

But now, sitting in my balcony and looking at the setting sun, a strange realization hit me.

I’m not sad for losing the fight…
or losing my mangoes.

Instead… I feel strangely content.

Because when I calmly look back at this incident now,
a strange thought crosses my mind.

I am laughing at it now, but it occurs to me that I could have well been lying in a hospital bed with a few fractured bones if those cows had intended to.

Instead…
Part of me likes to believe that those innocent cows had no intention of hurting me at all.

In fact, maybe that was their top priority.

And perhaps, they somehow knew I wasn’t a threat either.
Maybe that’s why they had sent their little one first.

And that victory gesture?
Who knows…
was something else.

Maybe it was actually a gesture of gratitude!
.
.
.
And so am I.
Grateful…
To life and to those innocent cows.

Bcoz life could have made this story end very differently.
Instead, it simply ended with a few hungry cows getting their mangoes and me getting a story.

And somehow, that feels like a fair deal.

Maybe even a beautiful one.

Because today I got to taste something even sweeter than mangoes.

The taste of Giving.