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Dear Amulya Malladi, I really enjoyed your book and also how you managed to insert comedy and the plot twist in the novel. As a female reader, I am able to relate to the story as it happens to most of us women out there. There is a lot of elements of equal rights that was shown in the novel yet it still manages to be relevant to all the readers out there as it is still happening to women out there regardless of their culture. As a women myself, I managed to relate myself to the protagonist as I am also confused at times with my life decisions. Communicating with conservative parents is never easy especially when they are brainwashed with all the culture relevance things. Thank you for your story that manages to inspire young girls out there to be independent and speak up for themselves. Sincerely, Sarah.

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Dear Amulya Malladi,                                                                    First of all, I would like to thank you for such a wonderful and inspiring novel where your readers including myself can relate to. From reader-response perspective, I like how the story heavily revolved around Priya's Indian and family culture because I believe that other than the Indian culture, most Asian people including myself also share the same family culture where you must obey your parents. I love how in the end, Priya decided to stand up for herself and choose what makes her happy rather than letting her end up with an arranged marriage instead. I understand that it must have been hard for Priya because she is conflicted between choosing her own path or the path that her family has chosen for her. All in all, I'm grateful for your beautiful and thoughtful work where we as readers can relate to. Sincerely, Amin.

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Dear Amulya Malladi, I have finished reading your beautifully written novel, 'The Mango Season'. I'm thankful and honored to come across your work that I believe a lot of people can relate to. As a reader, I can relate to Priya's experience on a personal level especially as the first born of my family, I'm often conflicted between choosing what my heart wants or choosing what makes my family happy. I understand the constant struggle and I can definitely see myself in her. Especially when it comes to psychological perspective where Priya is battling with her inner conflict, between choosing what makes her happy and going against her family tradition or obeying her parents and live the life she knew that won't make her happy. I would like to end my little note by saying, to other Priyas out there, you are not alone. At the end of the day, please choose what makes you happy and content with your life. Sincerely, Aelvina.

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Dear Amulya Malladi,
I have finished reading your novel "The Mango Season" and I totally enjoyed the whole storyline and the plot twists encapsulated into one feminist theory. As a female reader, I understand to the issues that you have highlighted in the novel and why is it a necessary matter that needs to be looked on.
In one novel, you successfully grasped the idea of 'fair and square' and 'human rights' regardless of gender and culture. This novel is still, really relevant throughout times as society changes rapidly in terms of mindset, openness and acceptance among each other. Female rights has been a huge matter too because women are humans as well. The fact that this story explained the feminist theory in the most simple and understandable way, it is super helpful for readers to digest and convey the messages.
Overall, I really enjoyed this novel and will surely suggest it to my friends. It will be a very good reading for them.

Sincerely,
Syahirah

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Dear Amulya Malladi,

I just finished reading ‘The Mango Season’, the plot is absolutely interesting. One thing that I find close to my heart is the character representation of Priya and her conservative Indian family. Due to their conservativeness about the Indian culture, Priya experienced limitation to her freedom in choosing life decisions along with difficulties in dealing with her family’s unwillingness to understand her. Personally, I can relate to Priya because I have a conservative father who values cultural traditions and thus whenever I bring up topics that oppose the values (which I think are no longer relevant in modern days), he will become very upset and gives a long lecture. Therefore, I hardly express any opinion and never go against the cultural values because he could not understand. However lately, I have noticed that my conservative father has begun to be more open minded to our opinions and justifications as he realized that what my siblings and I have expressed has a point. All in all, Priya’s conflict toward her family conservativeness has made an impact on me as a reader. It opened my eye to different perspectives. Thank you for the wonderful story.

Sincerely,
Sam

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Dear Amulya Malladi, I just finished reading your novel "The Mango Season" and I really enjoyed reading it. As a reader, I personally could relate to Priya, specifically the part where she struggles between choosing her own life-decisions or obeying her family wishes. I completely understand the feeling when your own parents or blood-related family are unsupportive and disagreeable towards your own life goals. It makes the situation even worse when your own family is strictly conservative and traditional. It can be a difficult situation when you try to stand on your feet while confronting to the ones who have raised us since young. For this reason, it made me extremely proud knowing Priya took the final act to confess about her secret relationship to her parents by the end of the story. This inspires me to be truthful for who I am, regardless in any situation and be a mature person in making my own life-decisions. Therefore, I would like to thank to you, dear author, for writing this inspiring story. Sincerely, Jayne.

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Dear Amulya Malladi,

Who hurt you? I'm sorry if that came off disrespectful, I meant the exact opposite. I thank the people who inspired you to write The Mango Season because without them and you, I would never find a similar work of literature that spoke to me as a reader this well. As a millenial, the gap between my parent's generation and mine has always been apparent. Priya and her generation's struggles against the confines of Thatha and by extension inspired me in so many ways. Even more than that, I respect how Priya deals with her struggles maturely and did not rush to cut ties and burn bridges. In my opinion, this kind of maturity is the best tool that millenials can use in dealing with his cultural problem and Priya has been a great example for me personally. You definitely wrote her well, and for that, I thank you.

-a passionate reader

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Dear Amulya Malladi, I genuinely enjoyed reading your novel "The Mango Season" and I am intrigued by the correlation between the mechanics of your writing and the symbolisms portrayed. As a female reader and using the feminist literary theory, I found that novel highlighted contemporary issues of women, such as women diaspora in India, through the women presented in the novel. One of the most prevalent characters that addresses the issue of women diaspora in India is Priya. For example, Priya studied abroad at America and thus she has internalized the freedom of speech and feminism. This feminization of international migration from and among the developing societies further made the incorporation of the sociocultural moorings of the women (like Priya) from these societies (such as Priya's societal norm in India for expected gender role) an imperative. From the novel, it is also evident that gender hierarchy gets reinforced and becomes more rigid and traditional than in the homeland. For instances, Priya experienced the Third World country culture and going back to her more traditional family who are extremely conventional especially in terms of marriage and gender roles, resulting in her choices being monopolized  due to meeting the needs of her family hierarchy needs, especially that of men (The grandfather wants the first born for every next generation family members to be a Brahmin male). Although standing ‘in-between’ the two worlds—with complex realities of unequal power dynamics of the homeland and stereotypical spaces of the host land. Indian women (Priya,  tend to experience conﬂicting subjectivities of freedom and subjugation. However, I think that Priya is able to ﬁnd a freedom for self-exploration and deliberation to conceive new identities and move beyond the ﬁxed deﬁnitions of femininity, where she balanced her culture in India and the culture she adopts in America. Not only that, I also can see symbolisms from your novel that represents women diaspora. For example, through abundant use of food imagery and
culinary nostalgia, I think the food are not only as a means of asserting a unique South Asianness, but also as a means of exploring women's space within the diaspora and India. Like food, in much of the fiction of the Indian diaspora gender plays a
significant role as being the site from where the dialogue between costume and
cultural identity is primarily and most intensely conducted and contested That is all for now. Thank you for giving a new perspective using your lighthearted novel, The Mango Season. Hope to hear more from you soon. Thank you, from your dearest reader, Winnie.

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Dear Amulya Malladi,

I enjoyed reading your novel "The Mango Season" and I admire how you compact all those relevant issues in your masterpiece. As a female reader, I can really relate with some of the events in your novel through the feminist literary theory.

The way you portrayed the role of women there is intriguing. From issue of power and role to protagonist's inner conflict is so relateable to me. I think the issues is still relevant until now. I like how you portrayed patriarchal issue where the man is the one who decides on everything in the household. This is a little bit close to me as in my family. it seems that my grandfather is the one who has the power of deciding on some things. However, the role or place of women in the novel is not really happening in my own household. This is because, even though my grandfather but the women such as my mother and my aunt play their role as a decision maker too. Thus, I felt triggered when Thatha is dominating the family in deciding their future.

Lastly, I admire how you depict Priya's inner conflict as a daughter who struggles between her obligation to her family and her love to Nick. I haven't experienced this kind of conflict yet, but the way potrayed Priya's character helps me to realize that this kind of issue can happen in the future.

Overall, I had a great time reading one of your work.

Sincerely,

Syamiera.

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Dear Amulya Malladi,

I enjoyed your book The Mango Season so much because it was written like a masterpiece. Reading it for the second time gave me more in-depth thoughts about the story and how it relates to me as a reader. I understand how Priya felt about conflicts in the family when there is a misunderstanding between family members. It didn’t happen to me but it happened to a close relative of mine, in which her parents did not give consent to their daughter’s boyfriend. The situation was so tense because of the disagreement that happened. I can imagine how Priya would be because the same incident happened. Another thing is about how conservative a family can be. It is very hard to have a discussion with your own family when culture and beliefs is still highly regarded. We want to take care of our family’s feelings but at the cost of our own.

Overall, I thank you for writing such a wonderful story. This book is surely to be recommended to my friends and family.

Sincerely, Ega

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Dear Amulya Malladi,

I really enjoyed reading your novel, The Mango Season. Although we are currently stuck at home because of this pandemic, this novel allows me to travel to India and get to know their culture from the comfort of my bedroom. Overall, I would say that I was entertained by its storyline and the way it is written, especially the food references. The various characters are all well described even though I disliked some characters such as Thatha mainly because of his patriarchy. This can be seen in the story whereby the women in the family have little to no choices for their life and that the men have the power to make all decisions. However, Priya rebels and made her own choices. Later, Sowmya and Lata are inspired by Priya’s courage and make their own decisions too. Based on this event, I believe that everyone has their rights to make decisions and should be given a freedom in doing so. However, most of us nowadays make decisions just to fit into the society, rather than actually choose something that we actually desire. This action is a human nature in which we often find pleasure whenever receiving validations from others. As a result, we tend to get depressed because of the societal pressure. Hence, in order to overcome this issue, I think we should consider what the society wants, compare it with our own preferences and choose which one favours the other more just like how Priya deals with her family conflict. In short, The Mango Season has opened my mind on how to deal with life conflicts and I want to thank you for that.

Sincerely,

Aida Kamilia.

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Dear Amullya Malladi,

I have read your Novel 'The Mango Season for the second time and it still able to make me think and give critical thought about life. The character that I can relate the most is the main character which is Priya. In the story, Priya is both exposed to the American and Indian Culture. However, after living in America for seven years, India has become uncomfortably foreign to her. She became more open-minded while her parents remain with their traditional old views. I  have similar experience like Priya as I'm also from a conservative family. There are many topics or issues that I cannot talk about with them.  For sure, we will get into an argument if I try to bring up those topics. Nevertheless, I always try my best to respect their perspective in life, just like how Priya deals with her family in the story. This story had helped me to become more mature when dealing with conflicts, especially family issues.

Sincerely,
Mc Dowell

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Dear Amulya Malladi,

From your “The Mango Season” novel, I’ve learned some of mainland Indian’s attitude – which, I’ve never seen in Indians around me here in Malaysia. One of it is that the unhygienic habit of them in preparing food – which for them is something normal, but not for us since we are very careful in food hygiene. As stated from the novel where Priya herself felt irked looking at the mango peeled by her family and she thought of how unhygienic the way they cut them. Although I believe that before Priya went to US, such way of cutting mango is still acceptable and she was okay with it. It also shows that knowledge has the power to change one’s view towards something.

Other than that, through the whole story, I feel upset on how little information I get to know about Nick. This is because, as the most important person for the main heroine, I expected him to come up more and support our miss heroine.  I feel that a man should support their partner especially in getting their partner’s consent. However, Nick left Priya to fight for their relationship on her own. I wish Nick would come and beg for her family’s consent on his own, to prove of his gentleman.

Lastly, I am secretly admiring Anand and Neelima. Despite not getting the family’s consent, they got married anyway. It is indeed a very brave decision to make as they are unbothered to serve everyone’s happiness but to put themselves first.

Yaya

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Dear Amulya Maladi,

I have read one of your masterpiece which is the novel "The Mango Season". I like how it gives readers a peek into Indian culture and expectations when it comes to marriage. Looking at the story through the lens of reader response theory, particularly in the psychological context, I found it fascinating and can see why it would be difficult for young people from India, like Priya, who have been exposed to the western culture.  After living in the US for several years, Priya almost feels more American than Indian, yet she still wants the approval of her family. Personally, I can relate to this situation as even with  outside exposures, I still respect my own culture and roots.

The book is told from Priya’s point of view and I did find her frustrating at times as she kept avoiding the inevitable. At the same time, I could understand how she was caught between two cultures. She wanted to fit in her new culture but did not want to leave her old culture behind.  I think that is a common struggle for immigrants, like Priya.

Other than that, I also found it really eye-opening as there are other glimpses of Indian culture in the book from bartering, to the family structure, to a few recipes using mangoes and I enjoyed all of them!

Sincerely,

Rinivera

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Dear Amulya Maladi,
I have recently revisited your magnificent novel entitled The Mango Season for the second time. This time, with a wider perspective of seeing the inner depths of the story. I would like to first express how incredible this novel has portrayed such truths masked behind a fictional story, particularly touching on several issues from a feminists point of view. I understand how this story written may have a relation to your background or experiences while growing up. As a woman, noticing these hidden issues is surprisingly easy probably because it is commonly happening around us, still, and I emphatise the main character, Priya, for that. One profound example would be the roles of women in a society in general. This is reflected from Priya’s family belief how the men of the household are superior in making decisions of taking actions meanwhile the women of are subordinates who follow and obey. In this story, Priya have her rights to choose however the life she will live and who she shall marry for as long as it does not go against the law or anything in that matter. Similarly, this unfortunate scenario is the life of several women around the world. The feeling of being denied, voice rejected and emotions invalidated, one must never experience this on a daily basis. Times are changing yet, it is an unbearable fact how this custom still applies in today’s ever changing era. For someone who has gone through such pain, one can only hope and pray others would never have to go through this in their lives too. As a closing note, I really enjoyed reading this novel and hopes to read other works of yours in the future.

Your devoted reader,
Jasmine

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Dear Amulyia Malladi,

I have read your novel “The Mango Season” and I love how the plot revolves around the reader response literary criticism theory in the psychological context.  I can relate to it as a reader when Priya is portrayed to deal with her inner conflicts between her Americanized self and her Indian roots, because I also experience something similar to her. I am torn between my own perspectives in life and the perspectives of my family. For me, I do not see the need of getting married and having children, and I think it is okay not to get married if I do not have the commitment in marriage in the first place. Thus, I do not really think of marriage because I would rather focus on building my career and enjoy my life. However, my family is somehow still bound to the traditional perspective where everyone must get married and I find it to be quite stressful.  When I read your novel, it made me think about the conflict that I am facing in real life, hence, I can relate to Priya and reflect on how to overcome the conflict.

Thank you for writing such an eye-opening and full of lesson novel. I hope you will continue writing inspirational novel which I believe can be life-changing to your readers out there.

Sincerely,

Lynn