Memories from my rustic childhood

Memories from my rustic childhood

I grew up in a place where the forest surrounded the perpendicular boundaries. My neighbors, siblings, and I would often play in these forests.

During the season, we'd feast on the cashew fruits and forest mangoes. We enjoyed the monsoons, screaming at the rainy clouds to pour down heavier and heavier! "Jorr male! Jorr male!" my brother and I would scream, looking up at the skies as it began to drizzle.

We'd chew on the soft stems of the sprouted fishtail palm trees for fun. We'd cook our own dishes in the backyard and invite "guests" to eat them. Tomato curry, banana buns, and tiny little chapatis were a few of our specialties.

There was a very old, strong "Mogra" vine on the fence of our boundary. Its aroma would pierce noses miles away when in full bloom. We'd often fight with the neighbor kids to claim its ownership. My grandmother would say, "It belongs to us! I planted it! These neighbors came much later, and now they steal!"

In the summers, we'd race to the forest for cashews and mangoes to be the first to get our hands on the cashew seeds so we could roast them in the fire and eat them fresh. In the monsoon, the cashew seeds would sprout, and the seeds/cotyledons would turn green. But they tasted so good! Something raw, something fresh, and yummy.

We had our own slide in the backyard. "Nature's slide," we'd say! It naturally formed over the huge rocks that lay beneath the land. There was a tree, the highest point on our uneven land, right behind our house, on which mum would tie her old saree to make a long swing! Riding the swing made me feel like I was flying! Soaring higher and higher! It would go above the level of our terrace. It almost felt like I could touch the clouds.

Some days, we'd build "houses" from sticks and branches from the trees, and other days we'd play cricket near the "daddal mara" (Ceylon oak tree) with our handmade bats from coconut petiole (the hard woody thickened base of the coconut leaf). The "daddal flowers" had a strong odor. Not very pleasant but not unpleasant either. Yet, they were beautiful flowers. Large & showy, white flowers, a strong odor would bloom before the monsoon would set in.

When idle, I'd make a tiny garden in front of the house on a rectangular patch of land.

At times, all I'd do was wander around the house, between the short coconut trees and the guava trees. I'd often find solace in the embrace of this nature after a demanding day at school with heaps of homework, which I obviously would never complete. The guava trees were assigned: one branch belonged to my brother and another to my sister. We'd climb on my sister's branch, obviously the one with lots of fruits, and pluck the big, sweet guavas.

I too had a little guava tree which bloomed and bore fruits much later. I'd fight with anyone taking fruits from my tree! It didn't bear many fruits, though.

Right next to it was the yellow oleander tree, with a peculiar odor and its narrow, long, lanceolate, dark green shiny leaves.

In the forest, we'd play games, mostly climbing the trees. Each tree was a home, and each branch a room! We could climb and jump off the trees as effortlessly as monkeys. I suppose many of the trees leaned, slanted, or lay close to the ground because of our antics! 😂

We'd dress up the two long rocks, which marked boundaries and were at the entrance of the forest, as a man and wife and have them 'marry' every other day! Our neighbor was a tailor. We'd take the leftover fabric pieces from him and use them to decorate the stones. It was always fun to be on the girl's side; as the boy's side didn't require as much decoration or dressing up!

We'd also make dishes from clay once in a while and heat them in the fire because that's what we heard we should do! Most of them would break, but it was fun nevertheless!

We used the karmar tree (Burflower-tree) leaves as our currency. Some days, I'd role-play being a bus conductor; every size of leaf was assigned a value. 10-rupee notes, 5-rupee notes, 2-rupee notes.

We also had a cashew tree right in front of our house. We didn't care for it much; it bore the red variety, as opposed to the orange variety in the forest that we preferred. We also had many jackfruit trees that produced the best jackfruits in the entire area!

My mum had a love for growing vegetables. She often cultivated crops like drumstick, ash gourd, elephant foot, and Malabar spinach. I especially loved drumstick curry and sambar; they were soft and chewy.

Summers brought a local fruit feast! Jackfruits, cashews, and various types of mangoes would be in full bearing. Waking up to the chirping of birds was so commonplace that we overlooked their melodious tunes. Reflecting on it now, I've grown more appreciative of the beauty of nature and feel fortunate to have had such a rustic childhood.

I sometimes ponder if my interests and knowledge in botany were nurtured by those picturesque childhood days.

As the distant hum of modern life fades, and I'm momentarily transported to a time when life was simpler, days were longer, and nature was our playground. Those picturesque moments, forever etched in my heart, serve as a reminder of a time when happiness was found in the simplest of things. Every now and then, I find myself yearning for just one more taste of that idyllic, sun-kissed world.

P.S. Here's the funny thing: When I share these tales with my brother, he claims he doesn't remember half of these adventures! It's truly a wonder how childhood experiences can be so uniquely distinct, even among siblings. I suppose while I was busy etching memories, he was probably plotting how to sell our 'leaf currency' in the real world or something.