ABANDONED. A poor boy buys a mango in the market, encounters an old man with magic - a mongoose and a mountain is involved

[Leslie]

I read this around 2006-2008; definitely a YA novel, if not children's. I remember the cover having a boy with dark curly hair holding a large ripe mango in both of his palms. Although I don't remember the entire plot, I'm almost certain that he buys a mango with the few rupees that he earns at the start of the book; it might have been to share with his siblings. At some point he encounters an old man and they climb a mountain with a mongoose. Something about the mongoose being a fearless guardian against snakes. Setting might have either been Pakistan or India.

I've exhausted just about every database I'm familiar with, if somebody could pinpoint this book, it would be greatly appreciated as it's been bothering me for some time.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Up Mountain One Time?

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Leslie left the group. Moving to Abandoned.