29

Behind the Mango Tree


Life was so less complicated when we were children. It was so easy to live life to the fullest.  

Recalling an incident from my childhood...there is a grandfather mango tree standing in one corner of our school ground, which has stood testimony to generations of thick friendships, roaring successes, bitter failures, true love, few heart-breaks, plenty of laughter and tearful goodbyes. 

This mango tree has seen me grow into an adult from a little girl; it knows everything about my childhood – my little secrets and fantasies, my likes and dislikes and my mood swings. It even knows about the friendship I shared with this brown-haired, dimple-cheeked boy, whose face or name I don’t remember now.

It is an old story that happened during the time I lived in brown pinafore that remained above my knees. …the time I believed Cinderella and Snow White existed in a land far away from mine. …the time I laughed when I felt happy & cried when I felt sad. ...the time I worried very little!

Whenever we played hide-and-seek in school, my favorite place to hide was behind the fat mango tree trunk. Once I hid there, holding hands with the dimple boy. Nobody in the world, except the tree knows about the silly game both of us played in secret. We blew raspberries in the air and I vaguely remember him wiping my drooling mouth with his sleeves. His brown hair appeared golden when sun rays through the branches, fell on his head. And as we mastered the art of making bigger and bigger bubbles, the challenge was to break one’s bubble with the others. When we exhausted the saliva in our mouths, we moved on to next phase of the game, which was kissing the tree and nailing ripe mango leaves on it with a sharp piece of bark. In the evening, before boarding the school bus, we ran till the tree to find out if those leaves still remained there. Both of us were sad to see none on the tree, but we departed kissing each other’s cheeks. What happened after that is blurred in my memory, beyond recollection.

I don’t know if that game was played later; but I remember that beautiful day at school, I can still feel the gentle breeze and the swaying branches of the mango tree; can even hear the soft guiltless giggles of the little boy and the girl.  



PS: This post is part of the Write Tribe Festival of Words 2. The challenge is seven posts in seven days and this is the first one, on the theme Memories.  

29 comments:

Suzy said...

That's such a cute memory. Perhaps someday you'll bump into that brown haired dimpled boy.

Anonymous said...

That was an amazing slice of memory! Sweet as a mango :)

Sanjay said...

Nicely written! Have to admit you're a good story teller.
Took me too through the old school memories for a while, and I still remember, the school assembly band used to stand under the shade of this huge mango tree and also, it was the best spot that anyone chose while playing hide and seek :)

Unknown said...

Awesome recollections of childhood.Loved reading it.

Shilpa Garg said...

This took me to time travel. The only difference is that it was the tamarind tree where we hid, or just sat on the branches and chatting and munching the tamarind leaves!
PS : You may like to remove the word verification from comments! :)

Unknown said...

Lovely post. Took me back to my school days. And brought back some great memories.

Vishal Bheeroo said...

U gotta such cute memories of childhood, Shalinee:)
www.vishalbheeroo.com

Unknown said...

What innocent joyful times! ♥

Anonymous said...

Such a cute blog and such lovely memories. Love the flow of your writing. :)

Rekha said...

Wow! Cute memories of the golden days of school. We had a Peepal tree in the center of the playground and I have such beautiful memories of sitting underneath it with friends watching others play. :-)

Gayu said...

Such a lovely one...hmmm School days and the games we played...:) This Prompt has made us all nostalgic I guess :)
Everyone basking in the love and care and fun!!!

Tarang Sinha said...

Childhood memories are always special! Cute post:)

Jairam said...

That was such an extraordinarily cute walk down memory lane. Childhood crushes and love remains special throughout life, don't they :D

Pixie said...

what a cute memory!! :)
It made me remember my tree-climbing days!! :)

Pink Mango Tree said...

Suzy - Hopefully... if not I, wish at least he remembers!!!

Pink Mango Tree said...

iwrotethose - Thank you! sweet comment too :) :)

Pink Mango Tree said...

@ Sanjay - the same tree under which late comers and even those who did not polish their shoes stood :p :p

Pink Mango Tree said...

@ Usha Menon - Thank you :)

Pink Mango Tree said...

@ Shilpa Garg - Thanks for dropping by. Yes, tamarind trees are part of most of our childhood memories.
And, without verification, I get a lot of spam! :(

Pink Mango Tree said...

@ J N C Rodrigues - Thank you :)

@ Ranveer vishal - Thanks a lot!

@ Kathy - yeah... children are such innocent things!! ;)

@ jyothisdayout.com - thank you so so much!

@ Rekha - Peepal tree?! so, lot of secrets and gossips shared under that? :p

@ Gayu - thank you.

@ Tarang Sinha - thanks a lot..

@ Jairam -Seriously!!! it is such a pleasure walking down the memory lane!

@ Pixie - tree-climbing? tell us more about your adventure!

Stroblitz said...

Engrossing...... :)

Dr Roshan Radhakrishnan said...

Like many, i too am curious to know if u ever saw the boy again :D

Back then, we all used to play outside... no PS3s and Angry Birds for us. Well, there were angry birds but they were the crows in the sky!

Pink Mango Tree said...

@aditya - thanks :) :)

Pink Mango Tree said...

@Roshan - no man; sadly I don't even remember his name! Now the only hope is he happens to read this and come to me. Totally filmy, right?

BTW do you remember the mango tree in balbhavan? And yes.. there were many angry birds on the tree too!! :)

Richa Singh said...

Cute blog theme and an even cuter memory. I wonder how we felt back then no? All those years of life gone past in giggles..

Richa

Pink Mango Tree said...

@Richa - thank you. I love those carefree years of childhood.

Shiva said...

Oh Shalini, what a piece this is! Cheers to beautiful memories :)

Pink Mango Tree said...

Shiva... Awesome to hear that from you!!

Pink Mango Tree said...

Shiva... Awesome to hear that from you!!

Back to Top