The Mango Tree

My grandfather is in his late 80s and still in fine fettle. He is a bit of a writer and sends little snippets on his life my way now and then and they are always a pleasure to read, though admittedly I am more than partial to his memoirs of the 30s to the 50s. Yesterday's was more au courant though it ties up nicely and unexpectedly and in a slightly happy-sad way with the past. So today's guest post is by the grandfather.

"The mango tree opposite our house is giving mangoes with a vengeance and has offered a lot of fun for the past one month or so. The mangoes are ripening in the tree itself and this has added to the merriment. This morning when I opened the gate, I saw a woman, a passerby, picking a fruit and then searching for more on the road. Then a shool going boy coolly entered the compound, picked up a fruit that had fallen and started to eat it before my eyes. Now our compound has become an open ground and children of all hues enter it throughout the day and Periamma is after them. You should see Arya Mama chasing them on the road. The slum children have been coming in the afternoons and with long sticks get clusters of raw mangoes and take them by the sackfull. To avoid this nuisance (in a way it is fun and a nuisance), I tried to engage some pluckers but Rajanikant vetoed this as the plucking is a common task. The price demanded was Rs.500/- and a share in the produce. To compensate he collected about 100 mangoes which he shared with us in a fifty-fifty basis. For our share, we had also got some mangoes previously. Suchitra and Radha prepared pickles out of them. Of course Surekha and the maid servant who comes in the morning to give a bath to Periamma had their share. Yesterday when I went out I got one fruit that had fallen from the tree just then. I tasted it and it was very sweet. I have kept 40 mangoes to ripen and hope to get the fruits in 2 or 3 days.

This tree has a history. In or about 1958, a small sapling came out of the ground on our fence and has grown into a mighty tree. It has been a silent witness to all the happenings in our family for the past sixty years. It used to give mangoes every alternate year, however this time we got mangoes last year too. But unfortunately over the years it bent towards the east and it is now outside our compound - we cannot claim ownership neither can anybody else! It has become common property and is treated as such."