Papa , Chiku and the Guava tree

 

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 precious to him.

But did the family feel for him? I doubt it. Even when I had grown up a little and had begun to understand the family dynamics, I remember some very unfair monetary demands on my father. But now he had a family – wife, daughter and son to look after. He had loans to pay and save for the education of his children . Above all , I think , he realised how his family had used him all these years. But the sense of duty in him was too strong. So even though he did not want to, nor could he afford to, he was always trying to explain to  his mother, why he would not give money for this or that cause. It always ended with a lot of screaming and shouting and accusations that he is not doing enough for his brothers and sisters. But he was strong and stood his ground.

But underneath the image of a person who was rude and unsophisticated lay another individual who was eager to learn till his last breath. He was a visionary and a feminist. In his home, all the women flourished and had never to ask for equality. We were understood to be equals. 

He loved music. Around the late 1970s , he saved enough to buy a HMV Vinyl record player. Those LPs were so expensive. But for years, every month we would go to the record shop to buy one Vinyl record. I think they costed around Rs 250 a piece in those days. That was quite a princely sum. Sometimes we would also buy a small vinyl record, I forgot what they were called.

And what a blast we had with the record player.

Amongst other things papa was also a staunch environmentalist. We had the biggest leafed Money plants that I have ever seen in my life. Most of the leaves were almost as big as my arm, hard to believe but so true!

Like all parents, he loved his children above all else and would try to fulfil all our demands. We had many fruit and flower trees in our garden and every day, morning and evening teas in the lawn were eagerly looked forward to. But since there were around a dozen guava trees in my Nanis house, which was close by, we did not waste space in planting another one in our garden.

One day, I casually mentioned that it would be fun if we had a Guava tree extending right up to my room on the first floor. Then I would have to just stretch my hands and  get the freshest guavas. Soon enough our gardener was instructed to plant a guava tree under my window. In no time, the little sapling grew into a tree and within a year, it reached my window. Winter brought with it the most beautiful white guava flowers and soon enough my wish was fulfilled. But then I got married and moved out but I have yet to find  better tasting guavas anywhere in the world.

Papa also loved dogs. Ever since I can remember, we always had a pet  around our house. I don’t remember if we had asked for a pet or our parents wanted one or we were simply handed one by some friend or relative. No one ever brought a dog in those days.

Our first pet was a brown Pomeranian called “Mirchi”. I wonder why we called her that. Our last was a roadie called Chiku. Again I wonder why we called him “Chiku”. We were cheated by a boy called Pappu into believing that Chiku was a Pomeranian. When Chiku had arrived, he was such a cute ball of fur but soon he grew up into this wilful and not at all friendly dog. He was always snapping at people and had bitten more than a score of people by the time he passed away. With age, he became more and more ferocious.

But he listened to Papa who was by now suffering from a host of ailments. He had become very weak and would spend hours under the guava tree with Chiku giving him company. He would have his morning tea on the balcony next to my room, where the branches of the guava trees had encroached. Every morning , he would go and check the branches, some dead ones needed to be removed while a few unruly ones had to be tied and tamed. Once the flowers started blooming, each one was looked at with admiration followed by prediction on how many guavas each day we can expect in this season.

After his morning routine, papa would station himself under the guava tree with Chiku tied close by. He would have his breakfast and read the newspaper there followed by mid morning tea. Sometimes neighbours passing by would come and give him company, He never failed to praise his precious guava tree.

And the tree flourished under his care and affection.

Soon papa’s health deteriorated and he was hospitalised many times before he finally lost the battle.

He was a very popular person and  a very large number of people came to pay their last respect to him. Amidst the chaos and grief, we forgot all about his companion of the last few day – Chiku and the guava tree.

Because of Chiku, none dared step near our gate but now when papa’s body lay in the hall and there were so many people miling around, Chiku sat ever so quietly under the guava tree. His grief was marked by his silence and somehow the guava tree also appeared so quiet.

Within a few days of papa’s passing, the leaves on the guava tree started drying and shedding even though it was late September and soon enough we could have expected beautiful white flowers followed by the most delicious guavas.

It was strange and maybe we were imagining but the flowers were not so pretty this year and with each passing day, the tree seemed to wilt some more and Chiku seemed to get more aggressive.

 Soon we realised that something needed to be done else we would lose the tree. Gardener was instructed to add more manure, undertake treatment for the termites or whatever was required. We invited someone from the horticulture department to have a look and followed his remedies to the T but alas, to no avail. A few day after, the tree completely dried up.

In the meantime, Chiku had become impossible to handle and had to be chained up most of the time. Servants would leave his food far away from him and maintained their distance else he bit them. By now, not only was he more ferocious but also extremely strong and his walker refused to take him for his walks. We let him in the garden to roam freely as none dared to chain him or take him for a walk. And then one day just as suddenly, he too gave up and passed away.

An ordinary guava tree and the much unloved dog, both missed papa’s unwavering love and affection and followed him to wherever he had gone.