A coconut tree in our garden having not responded to all efforts to revive it for a year, did not show signs of recovery, because of which the advice was to fell it for fire wood. When we went through the process, we celebrated its history of eighty five years. Now the fire wood would be used to make fire, to dry the nutmeg nuts and maize during the monsoon months. The coconut palm continues its worthy purpose of being a tree for others!
It is a tree which once gave good yield. This belonged to the first generation of coconut saplings my parents planted after buying a barren land with a small house for them to live in, when they migrated to this area to teach in a school which was in need of teachers. I feel moved that they had a missionary spirit, which made them relocate 90 kilometres away from their families and kindred after three years of their marriage.
It is a time of recollections of some memorable stories. The coconut crop was an added source for their income. I remember how my parents in the evening weaved the coconut palm leaves, as they were commonly used to cover the roof of many houses in the village. That was how they offered their skills and resources to live mindful of the needs of others. When the families who needed milk for their children, and could not find close by, my mother started rearing cows, which then provided milk for a few neighbours. I have some memories of similar experiences, which stay within me as influences in forming my habits and thoughts.
They were lessons to familiarise me to sense a human need and reach out to respond to it!
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
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