During the summer months you can see guavas everywhere – being sold by roadside
sellers to our own street-end hawker. Whenever I go on a family vacation (far -
far away on the highway), there is a very high probability (99.99%) of coming
across a roadside fruit seller, selling this delectable fruit, on a highway
traffic signal.
It all begins with a tap on the driver window, prompting to buy this fruit. While my tongue is already drooling, there is no way I won’t spend couple 100 bucks to buy the fruit (at a higher price though). The vendor cuts the fruit into 4 and applies some magical masala, which puts me in 6th gear of ecstasy, while my car is still idling at the traffic signal. 😊 It all brings back my childhood memories; when we would sneak into our neighbour's fruit garden, pluck the guavas and have it all for free. The thrill and excitement of plucking the guavas was like driving a super car clocking its max speed on the German Autobahn.
Stealing guavas was no less than a money heist for us young boys. Everything would be planned meticulously – eyeing when the fruit ripens, who will scale the fence, what time (usually after it turned dark) and how many would we pluck. It was a herculean task to pluck the fruit and returned unscathed. So many times, we would get bruised and hurt while climbing the fence or the tree, but nothing would deter us from our resolve to pluck some more.
As one of us was climbing over the fence or the tree, a lot of encouragement
would come from all the friends. Sometimes we had to tell them to hush up,
because the last thing we wanted was unnecessary company of the owner. We would
then climb the tree using our nimble hands and feet. Sometimes we could only
manage to pluck the ones that were very close to the ground, and sometimes we
could just manage to pluck only a couple, for a bunch of 16 boys. In the end
everyone got a tiny piece. However, it was the taste of success which was sweeter
than the taste of honey.
One
day my younger brother got all too excited and offered to pluck the guavas,
despite his 3 feet height. He scaled the 6 feet wall and started climbing the
tree. As he was climbing, the tree swayed in all directions and made a gushing
noise. This caught the owner’s attention who came out running and caught my
brother red-handed. There was no escape for him. We could have escaped but
decided not to, since we were a “band of brothers”. The camaraderie prevailed
and we stayed.
The
owner was angry and reprimanded us. He shouted on us for a while and when he cooled
down, he asked us for our house numbers and told us that he would complain to
our parents. Boy oh boy! a chill ran down our spine. We were chickened. This is
one thing all of us dreaded the most: someone complaining to our parents and
then our parents showing us all the galaxies, constellations, and nebula's in
just one shot.
However,
God was gracious, and the owner never showed up on our doors. I believe he must
be reminiscent of his childhood days when he himself must have plucked a fruit
or two from someone’s farm. He too must have giggled at that thought and said
these kids reminded me of my childhood days.
