It is not what you eat, it’s what you listen to that counts. That is if you wish to. Like you, I, too, never expected or experienced that fruits do chat with each other, especially when they get together in the same bowl.

Just half an hour before Iftar, on the last day of this Ramazan, I realised how a party was going on right in front of me. My mum placed on the dining table the big bowl full of the fresh fruits mixed as the usual chaat, and as soon as she went back to kitchen, I heard someone whispering.

“Friends! Come! Let’s have our last chat before the lady comes back.”

Another voice said, “Before we’re consumed and finished at Iftar.”

Then I heard a little laughing. I was alone in the dining room, there was nothing on the dining table except the bowl of fruit chaat.

“Were the fruits chatting with each other?” I wondered. Then I was amazed to realise that they actually were chatting with each other!

“This must be delicious. I’ve to listen to their chat,” I said to myself.

“We, fresh fruits bring fresh ideas when we talk,” said a slice of apple.

“But who listens?” two pieces of banana spoke at the same time.

An orange piece said, “Maybe no one listens to our chat because we can be sweet but sour too.”

Different orange pieces quickly added something about humans being foolish enough to always prefer sweets over citrus. Their analyses were juicy.

One piece said, “Humans need to know how beneficial citrus is in boosting their immune system.”

Another orange piece informed the fruit friends that Vitamin C was the most important vitamin, perhaps the most discussed and debated of the vitamin family. He further said that adequate intake of Vitamin C is essential, especially during the coronavirus pandemic.

One well-informed bright red orange piece updated the fellow fruits that a wearable patch has recently been invented to check the level of Vitamin C in the body of the wearer, and it shared the details of that patch. “But alas! People usually don’t know that how dangerous sweet things are for their health, especially the artificial one like sugar.”

A neglected banana piece interrupted hastily, “That’s the reason why I always say that never ever trust those who have been artificially sweetened, and particularly beware of such politicians, they turn a country into a banana republic.”

“In that case you should be happy that you would have a republic!” a mango chunk teased.

“A banana republic is not good, and you already know it very well, Mr Mango!” the banana retorted.

“Wait, wait,” the apple interrupted, “I’m afraid we would soon start talking politics and then swiftly switching to religion and sects. Why spoil a nice chat by talking about things that always lead to arguments?”

“You’re right,” said a peach slice, “these two are the only topics that people discuss. I am totally tired of hearing such discussions when people sit on the dining table or around the TV.”

An grape chipped in, “Even newspapers lack the lustre to illuminate the lives of their readers. Every day it’s the same people, same pages and same stories.”

A crushed black pepper piece spoke for the first time during the chat, “Though I’m not a fruit to take part in this fruits’ chat, since I’m with you in this bowl, so I would also give my opinion.”

“Well, why not? Your opinion would add spice to this chat,” apple said.

Black pepper smiled and said, “Fresh fruits bring freshness to a meal and the human body because they are consumed with their natural goodness. You fruits are nature’s gift to mankind.”

“Yeah! It is what you said at the start of this chat,” banana quickly agreed, and added, “If kids take fresh fruits instead of fast food, then they will not be fat, but fit physically and also mentally.”

As soon as the call of the Maghrib prayer from the mosque began, all the fruits became silent and ended their chat. After the Azan, all the fruits said this prayer together, “All thanks to the Almighty who granted us the opportunity to serve the servants of Allah.”

Published in Dawn, Young World, June 6th, 2020