is May-June, which is summer here. And ofcourse, the monsoon usually starts every year
without fail by 1st week of June. Which means you can sit inside and have cups of hot tea
or coffee and watch the rains. Or just snuggle in bed with a book.
Apart from rains, the main attraction of this time of the year is the wide variety of fruits
that are available. Mango trees are in full bloom, so are jackfruit trees. Check out this tree
on the road-side - the land belongs to my friend & neighbour Suresh's family. The posters
from the recently concluded elections can be seen on the wall.
And in those days we had some 3 cashew-nut trees in the backyard. Since these trees are
easy to climb, we would climb and pick the fruits which would be eaten and we would make
small fires over which we would roast the nuts. I still remember the taste & smell of the
roasted nuts.
I had my first smoke on that cashewnut tree. Me and my cousin Saji sneaked a couple of
beedies from my Grandpa's stock and climbed the tree to try what smoking was all about.
It's a different matter that not only did we end up coughing our lungs out, we also were
caught in the act by my sister whose attention was attracted by smoke coming from the
top of the tree. We begged her to not tell our parents about it, to which she agreed on one
condition - she should be allowed to take a puff. :-) Needless to say that she hated it.
Last week, me and my son set out on a walk in the neighborhood, checking out the mango
trees and jackfruit trees. Actually he reclined royally in his pram, which I pushed along.
We came across this jackfruit tree that had atleast 15 jackfruits on it and all so close to the
ground.
A close-up of the jack-fruits on that tree.
And then there is another variant of jackfruit which I have not seen outside Kerala. It is
called Aanjili-chakka in Malayalam, with 'chakka' meaning jackfruit. These trees grow really
tall and the fruit when ripe is too delicate, so that if they fall to the ground, they just splatter, rendering them useless. It is mostly the birds that get to eat it.
It is a jackfruit in miniature , in the size and shape of a cricket ball. It also has thorns on the
outside like a jackfruit, just that the thorns are smaller in size. Inside also the fruit is similar,
but smaller, with lesser flesh and smaller seeds. Last weekend, me & my Dad tried to pluck
some fruits without them hitting the ground, but were not so successful. Plan to try with a
net this weekend, as a wise friend suggested. Hopefully we will get some this time around.
I am surprised I don't have even a single snap of this fruit on my PC. This inspite of the
fact that these trees are all over the place. Finally had to google for it and got this crappy
pic. Will replace this later with a better quality snap.
The road where I photographed my son in the 2nd picture above, ends at the river. There
are a few steps built on the bank of the river and we both go and sit there, spending some
time staring at the flowing water and some kids who are swimming and thrashing around.
We sit there for sometime and then walk back home.
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