On the coast of Coromandel
Where the early pumpkins blow,
In the middle of woods
Lived the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bo
...........Edward Lear
***********************************************************************************************
Not only pumpkins but also cucumbers, watermelons, bottle gourds and all such watery creeper-borne vegetables blow at a mind-blowing rate when they decide to do so.
In the early 1950s we were living on the famous Coromandel Coast in the Village of Muthukur in a tiny house with a mammoth backyard. The house was then good enough for us but keeping the backyard clean was a Herculean task in which everyone participated enthusiastically in the beginning.
Call it Beginner's Luck, but there was this creeper of bottle-gourd which was wilting, withering and dying till Father tended to it with love, manure and water.
It reciprocated famously.... within six months it spread all along our side of the boundary wall, with lovely tendrils, tiny buds and milk-white flowers, making all of us glad that a dying thing was revived.
Then came the rains....and the creeper started yielding its Bounty. The Harvest turned out to be simply unmanageable. There would be slim six-inch fingers when we went to bed at night and by the next morning they grew to two feet; and by the dozen everyday...a veritable cornucopia...
Bottle gourds were expensive in our villages because they can be cooked in a dozen ways: curries with dal, milk, masala, curd, sambar and other inventive recipes. And tender bottle gourd is supposed to be good for the tummy.
Mother made all these varieties day in and day out till everyone of us was fed up and declined to touch her food if they find any preparation of the damn thing in the menu,
And they grow too tough and useless if left on the creeper even for a couple of days.
So every morning myself and Father had this duty of plucking them. And it was left to me to distribute them among neighbors near and then far away....they were all very happy at first but they used to shut their door soon enough when they spotted me with 2 feet long gourds on my shoulders much like the maces of Bhim and Duryodhan.
Since Father was the Head Master and a virtuous Brahmin at that, he couldn't dare sell them and get a bad name. So, we had to carry them to Nellore by bus and distribute them among our dozens of relatives near and dear as well as far and feared. And they used to pick the ones of their choice and leave the others behind...so much so that all of them were unhappy thinking that they were not the first in the receiving line. So, we had to rotate the itinerary....all in all we made more enemies than friends.
Our neighbor was eying us with envy...he hardly knew.
So, one night he pulled the creeper to his side of the boundary wall preparing for a fight on his hands next morning...he hardly knew...
After a couple of days of relief, the wretched creeper turned back onto our side of the wall and refused to leave us in peace. There was this sentiment that we can't very well 'kill' the creeper that was yielding such a rich crop.
The Agony lasted 2 months till rains stopped; and we decided to move to a bigger house with a tinier backyard with just a wilting guava tree which we decided not to manure or water. We hardly knew...
Following Vastu Sastra, Mother made a kitchen drain that happened to water that Guava Tree in abundance with the leavings of minerals, vitamins, and biochemicals that it was just thirsting for for decades.
When rains came, it yielded tennis-ball-sized fruit with bright yellow skin and blood-red innards...a Benaresi Guava Tree...Prize Possession for any fruit-lover.
And it apparently wished to worst the Bottle Gourd Creeper in its Bounty.
We were back to square 1.
And our new neighbors who were at first jubilant turned our enemies, because an over-ripe Benarsi Guava fruit is worse than the Cottage Cheese and Paraffin Oil of Harris, Jerome, George and Montmorency...it spreads its richly stinking perfume all over the house...you drink it, eat it, read it and go to bed with it...
We shifted house again....
This time a pleased student celebrated his success in the Exams by gifting his HM a cute pair of blinking rabbits.......
==========================================================
Where the early pumpkins blow,
In the middle of woods
Lived the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bo
...........Edward Lear
***********************************************************************************************
Not only pumpkins but also cucumbers, watermelons, bottle gourds and all such watery creeper-borne vegetables blow at a mind-blowing rate when they decide to do so.
In the early 1950s we were living on the famous Coromandel Coast in the Village of Muthukur in a tiny house with a mammoth backyard. The house was then good enough for us but keeping the backyard clean was a Herculean task in which everyone participated enthusiastically in the beginning.
Call it Beginner's Luck, but there was this creeper of bottle-gourd which was wilting, withering and dying till Father tended to it with love, manure and water.
It reciprocated famously.... within six months it spread all along our side of the boundary wall, with lovely tendrils, tiny buds and milk-white flowers, making all of us glad that a dying thing was revived.
Then came the rains....and the creeper started yielding its Bounty. The Harvest turned out to be simply unmanageable. There would be slim six-inch fingers when we went to bed at night and by the next morning they grew to two feet; and by the dozen everyday...a veritable cornucopia...
Bottle gourds were expensive in our villages because they can be cooked in a dozen ways: curries with dal, milk, masala, curd, sambar and other inventive recipes. And tender bottle gourd is supposed to be good for the tummy.
Mother made all these varieties day in and day out till everyone of us was fed up and declined to touch her food if they find any preparation of the damn thing in the menu,
And they grow too tough and useless if left on the creeper even for a couple of days.
So every morning myself and Father had this duty of plucking them. And it was left to me to distribute them among neighbors near and then far away....they were all very happy at first but they used to shut their door soon enough when they spotted me with 2 feet long gourds on my shoulders much like the maces of Bhim and Duryodhan.
Since Father was the Head Master and a virtuous Brahmin at that, he couldn't dare sell them and get a bad name. So, we had to carry them to Nellore by bus and distribute them among our dozens of relatives near and dear as well as far and feared. And they used to pick the ones of their choice and leave the others behind...so much so that all of them were unhappy thinking that they were not the first in the receiving line. So, we had to rotate the itinerary....all in all we made more enemies than friends.
Our neighbor was eying us with envy...he hardly knew.
So, one night he pulled the creeper to his side of the boundary wall preparing for a fight on his hands next morning...he hardly knew...
After a couple of days of relief, the wretched creeper turned back onto our side of the wall and refused to leave us in peace. There was this sentiment that we can't very well 'kill' the creeper that was yielding such a rich crop.
The Agony lasted 2 months till rains stopped; and we decided to move to a bigger house with a tinier backyard with just a wilting guava tree which we decided not to manure or water. We hardly knew...
Following Vastu Sastra, Mother made a kitchen drain that happened to water that Guava Tree in abundance with the leavings of minerals, vitamins, and biochemicals that it was just thirsting for for decades.
When rains came, it yielded tennis-ball-sized fruit with bright yellow skin and blood-red innards...a Benaresi Guava Tree...Prize Possession for any fruit-lover.
And it apparently wished to worst the Bottle Gourd Creeper in its Bounty.
We were back to square 1.
And our new neighbors who were at first jubilant turned our enemies, because an over-ripe Benarsi Guava fruit is worse than the Cottage Cheese and Paraffin Oil of Harris, Jerome, George and Montmorency...it spreads its richly stinking perfume all over the house...you drink it, eat it, read it and go to bed with it...
We shifted house again....
This time a pleased student celebrated his success in the Exams by gifting his HM a cute pair of blinking rabbits.......
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