We used to live in a rented house in Madel waddo in Chorao, and behind it there was a very old and huge Imli tree. The house was not big. It was just a room, about 10×12 feet and the tree was adjoining the rear wall, sort of leaning on it. I was about six years old then and I would often be found out of the door, having rolled in my sleep. During the monsoon whenever it would rain heavily at night, Amma would get scared and sit up, fearful that the tree might fall, since the walls of the small room were not strong enough to protect us. It rains constantly for about three months and if we had three-four heavy showers during the day, too, Amma would be worried about the tree collapsing. We spoke to the landlord, asking him to trim the tree since much of it was against the wall, but he refused to do it. Fortunately, nothing ever happened. We used to get a lot of imli fruit from the tree, though. I used to gather them from around the tree and eat them, or sometimes squirrels would drop them to the ground. There were lots of squirrels on that tree since it was such a massive tree. I was in nursery then and would spend a lot of time at home. I watched the squirrels for a long time seeing them jump from branch to branch. They were in and out of the house, too. I also remember eating the leaves of the imli tree. Once, Amma had cooked some rice and kadhi. In the evenings she was fond of going for a walk and would take my brother and me along. She kept the kadhi and rice under the tree to cool down and we went for our walk. When we returned, the utensils had been licked clean by a cow!

Behind the Imli tree there was another tree, probably a mango tree which had a long, thin, horizontal branch close to the ground. There was a little clearing there where boys would come to play football, especially in the rains. I would sit on that branch and watch them play. The branch would rock up and down, like a swing. If the ball came my way, I would get off the branch and run after the ball and give it back to the boys, then perch on the branch again.

I know how to climb trees but I can’t get down. In the house where we live now, there is a mango tree. I climbed it one day to tease my dogs, who kept watching me as I climbed higher. I sat up there for about twenty minutes and then I couldn’t come down, so I had to call my elder brother. Fortunately, I had the phone with me. He was sleeping inside and got a ladder to get me down.

The other trees around the house where we live now were planted by Amma. Actually, she loved planting trees. From Madel we had moved to another rented place near Killan bar. She had planted a jackfruit tree along with a coconut tree there. When we moved out of that place to the house we are in now the trees moved with us. My father woke up at four in the morning and carefully dug out the tree’s roots, under Amma’s guidance. By eight in the morning, he had the Jackfruit tree out. He then tied the tree horizontally on his bicycle and walked the tree to this house. A coconut tree was also transplanted with the same process!

Sandhya Yadav is a graduate of Mass Communication from Xavier College, Mapusa, 2023 batch. She is born and brought up on Chorao island.