Atop The Guava Tree

On a hot summer morning, after a heavy breakfast of “puttu and kadala curry” (a staple Kerala food), a bunch of kids stepped outside the house to kick-start yet another day of fun and frolic. This ritual will continue for a month and a half till the school reopens. Shielding their eyes from the searing rays of the sun , they retreated across the concrete walkway, to the embracing shade of the guava tree; their favourite haunt.

 After clambering up the tree, they perched on the comfy limbs of the tree that stretched all around. You have to charge ahead of others if you want to secure the most comfortable spot on the tree. In seconds, the tree will become a bus carrying four passengers, a driver, a conductor and a “kili” ( ‘kili’ in Malayalam literally means bird). It’s the job of the kili to ring a single bell to halt the bus and to ring a double bell as a signal to start the bus. He should also make sure that everyone boards and alights in a jiffy. Kili will always stand on the footboard with one leg dangling out in the air. Kili will get into trouble if he gets pushy-shovey.

 The leaves will soon become tickets and a twig will become the conductor’s pen stashed behind his ear. The driver has a fixed spot, high on the tree, where a sturdy branch will bifurcate. This branch will be almost parallel to the ground and the driver will sit at the junction of the bifurcated branches, which becomes the steering wheel. The driver will sit and bob up and down which makes the tree shake as an indication of moving the bus. More the sway, merrier will be the ride. The passengers will board and get down at regular intervals and settle on the many branches aka the seats.

     That guava tree was an integral part of our childhood. It has witnessed many waves of laughter, squabbles, making ups and conversations. We, cousins, bonded atop the guava tree.

    Every year our grandma made sure to tie a swing to the guava tree. Not a fancy one but a simple rope tree swing with a seat made from coconut petiole. The flattest, sturdy and broad petiole will be selected and cut to a good length and the sides will be roughly trimmed to get rid of splinters. ‘V’ shaped small cuts are made at the edges to hold the rope steady in place. The petiole with the shiny side up becomes the seat. We kids used to take turns on the swing. And sometimes two or three of us will cram up together, sitting and standing, on the swing. During one such episode, the rope snapped midswing, catapulting all three of us up in the air before we crashed to the ground in a heap, within the coconut tree pit. 

  Those wide pits will be brimming with water during heavy rains. We used to huddle around the windows in grandma’s room and watch the pits getting filled up with the muddy water during monsoon. After it stops raining, we would float paper boats in that puddle. 

   As we outgrew the tree and went in search of greener pastures, our beloved guava tree stood there reminiscent of the past and swaying softly telling anecdotes to the wind.

‌P.S. Our guava tree dried up and had fallen years ago but stays green in our memories.