The first truly low point in my journey in Aanandi came on Saturday. I woke up to a melancholy feeling and a strong desire of not going to Aanandi. Yet, I coaxed myself saying, you made a commitment to yourself. C'mon, this is a passing feeling. You'll feel better with the trees. So I reluctantly went to Aanandi. That day the others were not going to come. I could have removed some more Ashok saplings, but I was feeling so low that all I did for a whole hour and half in the garden was walk from tree to tree and touch it and look at it for a long time. Then I called Smita and told her that I was feeling very low and I didn't do one bit of work and now I was leaving for home. She listened sympathetically and told me to water the plants before I left. I was so low that I told her I wasn't feeling up to it. Then I left.
But, it wasn't totally bad. In my time with the trees that morning I had discovered that the trees were responding in a disproportionately large manner to the little bit of work we have done so far. I found out that the there are many many raw (alphonso) mangoes. The jackfruits, the bananas and the ramphals are growing just nicely. Including the fruits and flowers both, there are going to be twenty-five pomegranates and as many, if not more, limes. To my great surprise I was a flower on the guava tree and three little guavas ! All the leaves on this tree had holes and we had plucked them out, scraped a bit of the bark and kept watering it each time but I hadn't expected it to recover so quickly and bear fruit. I discovered the best thing as I was leaving. There is a Madhumalati creeper on the gate to the bungalow. Just last Saturday we had looked at it despairingly and wondered why it wasn't flowering when all other Madhumalati creepers everywhere were ! As I was leaving on Saturday, somehow I happened to glance upward and was so pleased to see that the Madhumalati had flowered !
On Sunday Ashish, Amruta and I removed Ashok saplings...we're nearly done now...while Smita cleaned up the patch next to the Ashok patch which was littered with Ashok leaves ! Although the work wasn't heavy, the tree of us got bored of removing Ashok saplings. Just then HarshadK and NehaM arrived. HarshadK was made to dig up the Ashok saplings by getting him to believe that it would be good exercise for his forearms :) HarsahdK in his enthusiasm also removed some difficult Indian Cork Tree saplings. Then Rahul arrived and removed some Ashok saplings. By that time were nearly done with the day's work and also bored of the sapling work. Rahul climbs trees very well...he's very sure-footed and fearless. He is also experienced. Suddenly we requested him to climb up the mango tree and get some raw mangoes for all. So off he went. He quickly climbed quite high. We handed him the long stick with the hook at the end. Then Smita and Amruta went out to the road to give him instructions about the exact loactions of the raw mangoes. HarshadK and NehaM went to the canal walk-way adjoining Aanandi where there are some branches and Ashish and I stood under the tree. Then we had a blast for about half an hour while Rahul dropped down fifteen raw mangoes one by one. Catching them seemed as if we were taking catches in a cricket match. Oooh ...the smell ! And they are so huge ! After Rahul came down, we split them up amongst ourselves and gave one to TA (=tenant aunty).
After Rahul came down the tree, we were washing the raw mangoes and Smita casually glanced up and saw that one Ramphal was ripe and needed to be removed. Again Rahul was made to climb the tree and, with the stick with the hook, he gently removed the Ramphal. I gave it to Aai (my mother) because it needed to be ripened a bit more. We are contemplating getting Rahul to climb the Coconut trees too...they need some cleaning up and there are many coconuts as well that need to be removed. Poor Rahul ! How he must regret telling us that he can climb trees very well :)
Finally, before leaving, we took some kadipatta and then after breakfast at our 'favourite neighboorhood restaurant', we went home happy with the bounty of raw mangoes :)
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