Saturday, May 18, 2013

Fruit Trees - 1


Our papaya tree did yield two fruits at last. We had saved the seeds from a very tasty fruit given to us by a friend and had sown them. Resident ants of our garden loved the taste of the seeds and they finished most of the seeds. Out of the few seedlings that came up, three grew up. I planted them at three different places around the house. One died due to stagnation of water around the roots. Monkeys ate one sapling when it was about two feet high and very tender. I managed to save the third one and it grew at its own pace. It was nearly eight feet high and was flowering during last rains. One morning after a very windy and rainy night I found the tree lying flat on the ground. Since the roots were intact, I lifted it up and supported it with whatever was handy. Sticks, bricks and used car tyres to name a few. It survived the monsoon and another onslaught of monkeys and the flowers turned into tiny raw fruits. We eagerly waited for them to grow in size but one after the other they ripened and rotted overnight while they were still very small. To our relief, this phenomenon stopped on its own and some of the fruits grew in size. But they remained green even after they were quite large. I was observing them every day and when I detected (or imagined?) a very faint yellow shade in two of them I plucked those two in an attempt to prevent them from rotting on the tree and kept them separately hoping that they would ripen naturally. Nothing happened for three days and I was expecting them to dry up. To our great surprise they had silently turned  to a beautiful orange- yellow on the fourth morning reminding me of Mankutimma’s ‘Phala maaguvandu tuttoori daniyilla’ (Trumpets are not blown when the fruit ripens).


I was sure that the fruits would taste as good as they appear and they did. But better was the taste of success in nurturing the plant and getting the fruits in hand.  We had just finished the one that was cut and was about to go for the next when a friend of mine came along carrying some fresh vegetables he had grown in his field. He had been bringing us vegetables this season and we had nothing to offer him in return. The papaya came in handy. He accepted our home grown papaya with pleasure. Its feels nice to nurture a plant and get the fruit in hand but feels even better to offer the fruit to someone we like. “haNNu hanchi tinnu, hoovu koTTu muDi” goes the saying (share your fruits and flowers).

I have written about our chikoo, guava and plantains earlier and this papaya is probably the last, at least for the time being. We do have another two trees in our compound, the mango and the coconuts. Considering the rate at which the mango is growing, only the progeny beyond my great grandson/daughter may have some chance of tasting the fruit. One coconut tree has just started with the first flower and I do not know how long it takes for the flowers to turn into coconuts. People who are in the know about plants and trees (or think they know the plants and trees) say that the first flower of a coconut tree never turns into coconuts and they also say that I have made a mistake planting the mango and coconut next to each other. I believe both of them are highly ‘individualistic’ trees and will never thrive in the company of the other.


When my wife hears such observations about my mistakes, she whole heartedly approves their view adding that this house has as many mistakes as the number of bricks used in its construction. She also says  that if I can make a list of all my mistakes and put them on the blog, at least the blog, (on which I waste such a lot of time) would be useful for someone who intends planning his/her own house!

That apart, talking about the trees, I read somewhere that after we leave the house in which we grow up and set up a house of our own we tend to recreate the atmosphere of the one in which we lived as children. I do not know if it is so but when we found ourselves with some space around this house in which we could plant some fruit trees, the first tree that I thought of planting was the guava tree. Was it because the memory of the guava tree which was in front of our house in Bangalore and on which we have spent a considerable part of our childhood never fades away?


I would like to write about this guava tree and few others which were around our house in Bangalore. We have enjoyed their presence and they have many pleasant memories associated with them. But it would get really long. So, I will take my brother’s example of writing in pieces and save them for the next bit if and when I can make it. In the hope of continuing about our fruit trees I have named this ‘Fruit Trees - 1’.

Thursday, May 16, 2013

IPL Match Fixing


I really do not understand why there should be such a hue and cry over the IPL match fixing. In our country everybody who can fix something fixes it. I fix teeth. The railway minister fixes positions in railway board. The law minister fixes CBI reports. The telecom minister fixes 2G, 3G or whatever. Our poor cricketers know only cricket and they fixed cricket. Probably they were just a few lakhs short for their next BMW bike or the Ferrari car. It is not their fault actually. Did anybody lodge a complaint? No. Our ‘aam aadmi’ was happy with IPL. He enjoyed Shahrukh khan’s dance, Katrina’s item and the cheerleader’s cheers. Why did the police have to butt in, bringing the last page IPL to the front page and rob poor Sanjay dutt of his rightful place? 

Saturday, May 4, 2013

Elections In Karnataka


Today is the election for Karnataka assembly. I remembered it when I saw the Goa - Belgaum, Goa - Hubli (and onward) buses crowded. I see them every day and they are usually empty. I will come to the crowded buses shortly.

It is a pity that all the parties in Karnataka have fielded people with proven track record of illegal mining. There is no hope for the state which even during British raj was famous for people oriented policies and activities. One of the less than half a dozen princely states amongst more than five hundred said to have been pro people. It was being ruled by Sri Krishnaraja wodeyar and was being administred by likes of Sir Vishweshwariah then. If anyone sees any hope for the state even today it is because of the inherent goodness of the people of the state and in spite of the best efforts of the politicians to ruin it.

Coming to the crowded buses, there are thousands of people who are natives of Karnataka villages working as manual labourers in Goa. Many of them still have their voting rights in Karnataka. These people are approached during election times by the party agents and are paid to and fro charges to their villages plus one or two thousand rupees per vote. The money is paid in Goa in advance. They can just keep the money and forget the election. But these sincere and honest labourers travel hundreds of kilometers in crowded buses, sometimes standing all the way to go and vote for the person who paid them. They know that they are not supposed to sell their votes but the lure of cash is very strong. And having accepted the money they do what they had promised.

I hope against hope that one day we will be rid of this evil but for the time being I wish that the people who paid the money were at least half as honest and sincere in their job as those who received it. 

Friday, May 3, 2013

Sarabjit Singh


Sarabjit Singh was attacked in a Pakistan jail while he was there waiting for the noose to go round his neck. Pakistan says he was a terrorist and he was found guilty by a Pakistani court. We (Indians) say that he was innocent and his capture was a case of mistaken identity. Sarabjit died in Pakistan and his body was sent back to India. We hear of many such cases in India too. Some ‘terrorist’ arrested or killed in Kashmir and his family and friends claiming him ‘innocent’. We, staying thousands of kilometers away and reading these things in news papers and seeing accusations and counter accusations on the TV have no chance of learning the truth. We watch these things impassively. It is just another piece of news for us.

Now if Sarabjit Singh was innocent, my sympathies for his family. He suffered unnecessarily because of the enmity between the two countries. The government has offered one crore for his family as compensation. He has been labeled a martyr and a state funeral is held. The Punjab CM -Badal and future PMhopeful - Rahul attended the funeral.

As I hear, Sarabjit Singh crossed over the border between India and Pakistan without noticing it because he was drunk. He was arrested and the outcome was unfortunate. What is even more unfortunate for us is the attitude of our politicians who do not think twice before turning any incident into a part of their vote catching exercise. They turned an unfortunate drunkard into a martyr, fired emotions, attended his funeral and handed over public money to the family hoping that it would buy them lot of votes.

I read about people hurling shoes at them. I wish I had the guts to go and kick them.