Garden of Joy

PRAJAKT

                                           

   Pach dume teen dachmach chacham chachu chudu chudu da da hoop !!!

No it's not a foreign language; it's a codeword language which was very famous Mantra among my childhood friends, and ofcourse it was created by me to keep entire team under my control. My memory says that it was made by me to fool some of my close buddies in my childhood, and it was very much related to the greenery around us in our childhood. I was captain of our group called 'Balmohan' created by me when I was in 5th or 6th Standard. The 'balmohan' team had 8-10 members including 3 girls in our colony. I grew up in Government colony of Santacruz Mumbai. in early 90s our colony was really awesome. There were all kinds of plants and trees in our colony. 

       

          My father really loves gardening.We had variety of plants in our Garden. Right from Big Banyan tree to small Chinese rose plants. Many fruit trees including Banana, Sitaphal, Fanas,Ramphal, Mango,Guava and Papaya. There were many flower plants too including Rose, Jaswand, Chafa,Prajakta and Anant. My father had planted many trees when he came to live there and they grew up in front of me (and along with me).I was too lucky to have spend so much time of my childhood in our Garden. In our Garden all the plants were planted strategically by my father considering their growth requirement and the size required to spread their branches after their full growth. It was really amazing that he had such a great knowledge about trees.

           Whenever we used to play Hide and Seek; my favorite place to hide was behind some bushes of our Garden or on the top of some trees. I was good athlete and used to climb Mango and Guava trees speedily.Those who had Mango trees in their compounds had some advantages and disadvantages. The advantage were ofcourse the   Green and Ripe Mangoes but the disadvantage was the stones thrown by children which they had to face on their trees on Sundays and Summer vacations. My mother used to tell me to sit and study under a shadow of Banyan tree and keep eye on Mangoes so that no one dares to throw stones on trees full of Mangoes. Guava tree had its own benefit. There was one jhula on the big branch of Guawa (Amrud/Peru) tree made by Nylon rassi on which I used to study in afternoons. I have developed a good habit of keeping a Water pot in our Garden/Balcony from my childhood. Hence I have seen many birds from my childhood. Apart from different types of Sparrows and Parrots,Crows I have seen many rare species of Kokila, Mainah and Bharadwaj bird. 

       The main attraction of our Garden was the tree of Prajakt. The flowers of the tree fallen on the ground in early morning used to make all the surrounding full of sweet fragrance. In early morning I used to collect those flowers and also pluck some Jaswand (Hibiscus) and Tagar flowers along with my mother for the Puja of God. In our childhood we had really good neighbors. We shared all the fruits and flowers in our respective Gardens. There was a big drumstick tree in my neighbor's garden, and we used to eat curry of drumstick most of the times in May-June months, thanks to our wonderful neighbors.In our childhood the most fantastic experience would come in the month of Summer vacation itself. There was lot of fun in climbing on trees with Lagga (stick with iron hook) to pick fruits from trees of Mango, Jamun etc. I still remember that during my SSC exam I used to study on my terrace in early morning from 6 a.m. to about 10:00 a.m. I used to have a fantastic conversation with the Koyal on the Banyan tree.

   Playing with mud was one more hobby of mine during my childhood.We used to make pots, Ganesha, house with mud and bricks. On several occasion we could see lots of earthworms or sometimes even small snakes under the bricks which we used to  pick for making the temple for our Mud-Ganesha. There was one huge cement tank in our Garden which we had kept for ensuring the storage of extra water for trees in case of any irregularities in water supply. And my one more favorite timepass was to observe the Spider walking on the surface of water and also the green layer of fungus. We had many cats.I always loved to watch kitten playing with each other and their mother trying to teach different techniques.I still remember one of my silly cat tried to teach its Kitty (Tilluji) to climb on trees and both could not come down for almost more than an hour as they got scared of the height they climbed unknowingly. The most ultimate thing about our Garden was, it was huge and had good space to play. I played many games in our Garden in my childhood. Lagori, Pakadapakadi, Hide n Sick, Chor Police, Karti- Dabais press, Khapari, Kho Kho, Kabbadi, Goti, Cricket, Hockey and so on.  There was so much of fun. We also fought a lot during our childhood. I was leader of my group and used to do lot of Nautanki if someone doesn't listen to me. I used to tell them, you can leave me alone. I don't want selfish friends like you. These threes, their leaves, these animals, and birds are my real friends, hahahahaha...Such was the innocent childhood, with real nature and real world around us. We never had computer, mobiles, video games. We spend lot of our time in playing in open air, on sand, on red soil, in water, in mud. It was 100% real. Hence our joys were real with no adulteration and no artificial colors of life. Oh ya... I forgot to tell about that Mantra..I used to tell my all friends that I know a secret mantra with which I call PariRani (Fairy) who completes all my wishes.The only condition was that she does it only for those who do not harm the nature and always protects the nature. And the biggest joke was...I  taught the Secret Mantra to all the 8 friends..lolz. 

                           
   God I want those days backkk..................