Papa and the Lemon tree Papa loved every plant and tree in his garden. It was one of those hobbies which both my parents shared with equal passion. When we moved to our own house way back in 1982, they very enthusiastically began to plant all kinds of fruit trees along with a variety of flowering plants, creepers, succulents and a sizeable kitchen garden. We grew most of our leafy vegetables, had enough of tomatoes, brinjals, beans, carrots, gourds, lady fingers, papayas, guavas and what not. What ever we planted, it bloomed and reached fruition soon enough. Not only did we have enough for ourselves, we were soon sending vegetables and fruits to our neighbours as well. But there was this one lemon plant. It just won’t grow. Each season it added probably about two or three more branches. Somebody told us to bury dead fish under the plant to make it grow faster. Now that was a challenge for us vegetarians. We screwed up our noses and brought the cheapest fish from the fishmonge...
Like each soul who walks the earth , even my dear Papa was unique in his own way. He was loud and ever ready to fight for what he called, his principles and what he thought was right. He almost always got carried away by his vigilantism and the desire to guide one and all to do things the right way. He had had a tough beginning in life and the struggles continued till his last breadth. Since a very early age, he started supporting his family which really did not need his support. His mother had lots of gold and controlled the purse strings in the family. So when the eldest started earning, it fell on him to extend support to the rest of the siblings and his parents. Sometimes his earnings were so meagre that after sending some share of his college scholarship home, he had little left to feed himself. I don’t think he ever brought any books. He would wait for his friends to sleep and then he would study from their books. Probably that is the reason why books were always so preci...