This Summer I am missing a most interesting cause of rising early in the morning though I am naturally an early riser. But, in all the summers of the bygone years, the cause of early rising was not health awareness but the love for local mangoes that ripened in our own orchard and had to be picked up from the ground before some teenagers sneaked to do the job. It was customary for our family to distribute ripe mangoes in the neighborhood but that could not contain a group of teenagers from sneaking into our unprotected orchard. At night we were awakened by the continuous thud of ripe mangoes dropping on the ground but were disheartened to find them missing the next morning.
The flavour of the juicy local mangoes was too irresistible to let others take it every day. As a part of defensive strategy the weeds and wild shrubs growing under the mango tree were left uncleared so that the intruders could not easily find the mangoes in the wee hours. This idea worked to some extent. However, early this year father decided to cut down the tree as it had grown so tall that it could uproot and smash the bathroom nearby.
Summer has set in this year and markets are flooded with mangoes riped with calcium carbide. Father sometimes brings them home but the smell and juicy flavour of our orchard mangoes are missing in them. We also miss the thud of the dropping mangoes and the intruders who have perhaps started sneaking into other's orchard.