What the Fruit Trees Know : Being Yourself I Story By Shuddi
On a quiet porch and the warmth of her grandfather’s words, Shruthi learns she doesn’t need to fit into anyone else’s frame to be enough. A heartfelt story of self-acceptance by 13-year-old Shuddi from Bangalore.
What the Fruit Trees Know
By Shuddi Bhaskar
Different frames
Sometimes, all it takes to understand yourself is a quiet porch, an old man, and a bowl of fruit. Shruthi shifted under her grandfather’s steady gaze. The silence between them wasn’t heavy, but it made her restless. She broke it not because she knew what to say, but because she had to say something.
“I’m sorry,” Shruthi said. The words came out flat, like they’d lost their shape before reaching the air.
“I know I messed up. I should’ve studied, but… every time I tried, they’d text, or show up, or laugh like I was being too serious. So I gave in. And when they said we could get the question papers, I told myself it wasn’t a big deal. Everyone does it, right?”
Her throat tightened. She didn’t cry, she was too angry for that.
“Now I’m the scapegoat. I got caught, and the second it happened, my so-called ‘friends’ ditched me. And my parents… they cancelled my dance recital. Do you know how long I trained for that? Do they even care?” Her voice faltered. “They hurt me, Dadu. If I stay quiet, I’m boring. If I speak, I’m annoying. If I don’t wear makeup, I’m ugly. If I do, I’m a pick-me. If I don’t gossip, I’m fake. If I do, I’m mean. If I lose a race, I’m useless. If I get good marks, I’m a show-off. I just… I’m tired, Dadu.”
Her voice cracked, frustration rising. “Mom and Dad want perfect marks. My friends want me to be a copy of themselves. I can’t be either. What’s wrong with me?”
Her grandfather was quiet, then smiled gently. “There’s nothing wrong with you, Shruthi. And there’s nothing wrong with them either. Your friends, your parents, they all see you through different frames. It’s natural to want to fit into those frames,” he said. “To be accepted, to belong. But you have your own frame too.”
An Apple and a Peach Lesson
He rose and walked toward the orchard surrounding their home. He returned with two fruits, an apple and a peachand placed them in front of her.
“Here,” he said. “Leave these on the balcony for a week. Just watch what happens, okay?”
Shruthi looked at the fruits. Despite the knot of frustration in her chest, something in his gaze made her pause. Without another word, she took the apple and peach and placed them on her balcony.
A week passed. Shruthi stood on the balcony, staring at the fruit. The peach had collapsed inward, rotting from the inside out. Flies buzzed lazily around it. The apple, though still holding its shape, was slowly decaying from the outside.
Today was supposed to be her dance recital the moment she had trained so diligently for. But it had crumbled away, and all she had now were two rotting fruits and a deep, gnawing ache. She picked them up and set them on her grandfather’s desk. Their silence said what she could not.
Her grandfather studied the fruits, peering through his glasses with a small smile. “What do you see, Shruthi?” he asked gently.
Shruthi hesitated. “One’s rotten,” she said. “The other’s… even more rotten.”
He chuckled softly not mocking, just amused. “Do you know why?” he asked, his gaze more serious now.
“I don’t know the science,” Shruthi muttered, crossing her arms.
He gave her a knowing smile. “I didn’t ask for science. I asked how the fruits behaved.”
Her puzzled expression said it all.
Her grandfather continued , voice calm and steady. “The peach tries to please everyone smells sweet, looks pretty. It changes itself to match what others want. But in the process, it loses itself. Quietly, It rots from the inside.”
Stay True To Yourself
He held up the apple. “But the apple it stays true to what it is. It doesn’t try to impress. And yes, it gets bruised. Not everyone likes it. But it remembers who it is.” He looked her in the eyes.
“Shruthi, when life flashes by in the blink of an eye, the one thing you’ll never regret is being true to yourself.”
She stared at him, silent.
He leaned back, still holding the apple. “This past week, people talked. Your parents yelled. Your friends… disappeared.” His voice softened but stayed steady. “It’s easy to become the peach to shrink yourself just to make it all stop.” He paused, letting the silence stretch.
“But Shruthi… it’s worth it to stay the apple.”
She didn’t reply. She just sat there, letting his words sink in deeper than anything anyone had said all week.
Sometimes, all it takes to understand yourself is a quiet porch, an old man, and a bowl of fruit. And sometimes, that’s all it takes to remember who you really are.
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This article is published by Bookosmia, India’s #1 publisher for and by young people. Bookosmia publishes stories, books, podcasts, events, TED-Ed talks, workshops, bedtime stories and more related to kids and young adults.
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