Down Memory Lane

A long weekend is coming to an end and tomorrow the normal office activities would resume. I wouldn’t offer you a prize if you would guess about my journey homeward this weekend, for if you are one among those who have known me for a while or have occasionally hit the writings on this location in the past, then you would know how frequently do I journey home, especially if the weekends are longer than usual. Tomorrow, I have a class on Solaris 10 , and to ensure that the weariness of an overnight journey does not show up in me while facing the audience, I decided against my usual Sunday night bus ride from Kochi to Bangalore and hit Bangalore early this morning instead. That’s again one day earlier than usual.

It is vacation time for all school going children and I have a few cousins who belong to that category. Needless to mention, it was fun being with them while at home. While being with them, talking to them and taking them to the backyard of my house, the fond memories of my summer vacations surfaced out in my mind, convincing me, for the umpteenth time, that those were undoubtedly the most carefree days of one’s life. My father has managed to plant varieties of plants and trees in our premises and most of them have now grown big. I walked around my premises, into the backyard, escorted by my younger cousins, capturing photographs of some of those fruits that we used to have in plenty during our school days. And in those days, I could climb on a few of those trees, an adventure that is no longer there in my agenda for obvious reasons.

If you have a few moments to spare, then let’s take a short walk in my premises.

The fruit in picture is Rose Apple. I figured out the proper English term for this fruit only after spending a considerable amount of time searching the Internet. And in the process, I came across a web log, where the author has expressed similar sentiments through her writing. You may kindly read her blog here. It is really good to munch on one of these because it is really sweet.

As mentioned earlier, I had no intention to revisit my school days to such an extent as to climb up the trees to gather the fruits. That decision, however, did not give me the luxury of having a clear view of the guavas located on the top branches of the guava trees in my premises. The lone member in the tree to the right of this text was the only one at a shorter height. There are different kinds of this fruit available and is supposedly very good for health.

Moving a little bit more into the backyard, you would hit a number of Jackfruit trees. The word ‘jackfruit,’ I read, derives from the Portuguese jaca, which in turn is derived from the Malayalam word chakka. Jackfruit is commonly used in South and Southeast Asian cuisines. It can be eaten unripe (young) or ripe, and cooked or uncooked. The seeds can also be used in certain recipes. Chips made out of this is very popular in Kerala.

Mangoes grow in plenty at our place and stands as one of the most preferred fruits by all of us, mainly because it is so plentiful that you could be standing on the ground and yet be able to reach up and grab a few of them at a stretch. Its popularity can also be attributed to its wide range of usage as food. Again, there are different types of them available within our premise and I must thank my father for nurturing them so carefully.

I don’t know Premnath. But without the help of his blog I would have had to spent a lot of time identitifying the right English word for the fruit that you see on the picture alongside this text. I like the look of Bilimbi fruit, but it’s sour in taste. May be, you will see a clearer photograph of it here.

We do have a small plantain garden in our premises and it’s a good place to spend some solitary sessions. The one plantain tree on the picture here bent itself at an angle good enough for me to get a decent view of the banana flower.

I am regarded as a good walker. But today, this short stroll, taking you around in my premise has taxed a bit on me and I am feeling slightly tired. May be it’s because my mind traveled a long way into my past, bringing back the vivid pictures of the memories of my childhood days, when I seemed to have been a little bit more in tune with the Nature than what I am in the current phase of my life.

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