The Story of the 

Jackfruit

FEBRUARY 8, 2014 | PARVATHY ESWARAN

A little girl came hopping happily, holding on to her father’s hand, through a beautiful garden, when she
suddenly stopped in her tracks looking at a big fruit on a tree. “Papa, what is that big green thing
hanging from that tree?”. The father says “ Kaavya, that is a jack fruit”. She looks at the fruit and says “A
fruit? Yuck!! That cannot be a fruit and something we can eat, it is so rough and thorny”. The father
laughs and plucks the fruit and takes it home, where he cuts it. Kaavya looks with awe at the beautiful
bright yellow insides of the fruit and then takes a bite at the yellow bit which her father offers. “Wow!!
This is really sweet and I really love it” was Kaavya’s reaction. “Come here and sit beside me, Kaavya and
I shall tell you a story” and so the story goes.

This happened long long ago, when plants, animals and humans could talk to each other; there lived a
big tree by name Jakkappa. The tree was so lovely and nice to everybody that birds, monkeys all played
on the branches and when they became hungry, ate the fruits that hung from the tree. Jakkappa bore
fruits which were small and yellow in colour and very very sweet. In fact, the bees also took the honey
from the fruits. In the evening, groups of children used to come and play under the tree. One day a
group of children who came to play became very hungry and decided to have the bright yellow fruits
hanging from the tree. One of the boys climbed the tree to pluck the fruits, but came down immediately
crying that all the fruits had been half eaten and there was not one single fruit which could be eaten.
The children went home hungry and disappointed. Jakkappa saw what had happened and became
dejected that he could not feed the hungry children.

Just then, Khaaja, the tailor came and sat under the tree to take some rest. Few drops of water fell on
his head and he looked up wondering and was surprised to find that his friend Jakkappa was crying. He
asked “What happened Jakkappa, why are you crying, did somebody hit you?” Jakappa replied “I am
unhappy because I could not feed a group of hungry children. My lovely little sweet yellow fruits were all
half eaten or fully eaten by the birds and monkeys which come and play on my branches. I am not able
to protect my fruits. Khaaja thought for some time and then came up with an idea; “I will stitch a thorny
jacket for your fruits, but there is still a problem. The fruits are very small and  there are many fruits and
it would be very difficult for me make such small jackets. If you will allow me, I shall bunch a number of
your little yellow fruits and stitch a big jacket”. Jakkappa readily agreed for the suggestion. Next day, he
brought a big, thick, green, rough jacket and bunched the fruits and covered them with it. Jakkappa was
very happy because the green colour would camouflage the fruits and the rough exterior would prevent
the birds and animals eating it. Khaaja also gave the fruit the name ‘JACK’, son of Jakkappa.

This is how the Jack fruit came into existence.

The moral of the story as told by the father to Kaavya:”Do not get carried away by looks: a tough looking
person may be gentle inside and sweet talking person may be very bad.