41 - Sparky’s ‘A stranger from across & a dream that's come to pass’ World

 
Hello, Sparky here.
 
Spring feels long departed,
but mangoes are yet to be ripened.
The river is ever frequented,
there is an insatiable thirst to be quietened.
 
That really sums up the week. The temperature is rising but the rains, the pre-monsoon showers to be precise which usually come by now to placate the burning earth has remained elusive. If I say anything more, it will again take me towards human bashing.
 
Instead let me report of the 2 new arrivals on the island. No, it’s not the Swallowtail butterflies from the caterpillars that the Kiwi-Civvy pair of monkeys took a fancy to last week. For that matter, they are still slumbering in their chrysalis (that’s right, it’s chrysalis and not cocoons. Not all caterpillars build cocoons.)
 
This week we had some humans who came over to spend some time on the island. Nothing extraordinary about that. The nicest of humans who visit are the ones who come and leave the place without taking anything or without leaving anything behind. These lot were nice as well but either their negligence or someone else’s stupidity or just our plain rotten luck has left a huge impact on us.
 
I really wish, they can come back and take back the one thing they unknowingly brought and the thing that they knew they left behind but couldn’t do anything about it. The boat they boarded on the mainland had been tethered to a tree trunk for a week, so in a way it had become a part of the scenery to the peafowls I mentioned who have come to reside there. So, this peacock was taking his siesta on the sun shade of the boat when the humans boarded the boat and crossed the river. A boat, tethered or not, does usually bob about in water but shouldn’t a peacock know the difference between the bobbing by the bank and that of a boat in motion? This dunce of a peacock couldn’t tell the difference. Imagine his surprise when he woke up later to find himself in a completely different scenery. Now try and imagine our distress as this peacock carries on a conversation with his family on the other bank. I am glad I don’t understand peafowl-tongue but I wish their conversation could be carried on beyond the frequency audible to us like Elephants, Giraffes, Dolphins, Bats and Whales are capable of.
 
This Peacock is one happy-go-lucky fellow, I will give that to him. Had it been me in his situation, I would have panicked. His first reaction on finding himself in a new place was to promptly jump off the boat. As the humans sort of realised what had happened and started to panic even the peacock’s share of panic, this guy unfurled his wings and strutted around. Thus having calmed the humans he sort of sent a testing note into air which soon grew in strength and tempo till he was having a full blown conversation with his family on the other side of the river. Having established the fact that they are within hearing range he has since then behaved like he’s on a holiday. 
 
The humans even wondered if there a way they could take the peacock back to where they brought him from but though the peacock well understood what they wanted, he wouldn’t oblige them by getting back on the boat. Well, I don’t blame him. Who can trust humans?
 
Am sure getting back to his family is on his mind, like it is on everyone’s mind on Banyan Island. Especially when the peacocks have a conversation we try to think of a way by which he might be able to go back, but then soon he settles down to other activities and we sort of settle down into our pre-peacock days of calm and quiet.   
 
This week one of Udra otter’s friend, Bringa came visiting. She went around the island for a stroll and came back and casually said that there was a Jackfruit sapling that was growing near the far side of the island. None of us mammals on the island, even the Otters who had teased us and treated us with jackfruits last year have ever seen a jackfruit tree.
 
This piece of information soon led to a long and continuous line of visitors marching towards and then beyond the mango tree to check this new resident on the island. Need I mention that all of checked on the mangoes as we walked past the mango tree. 
 
All of us stood around the sapling like we were taking part in a ritual which in a way we were. We were all recalling the beautiful fruit that we had savoured last year. Spiky on the outside, then cut open to a skilful game of hide & seek revealing the arils within. Soft and shiny to look at and melt-in-the-mouth deliciousness to devour and savour.
 
Bringa quite astonished by what she was seeing, cleared her throat and said quietly, ‘It won’t fruit for at least next 3 to 4 years, you know.’ It wasn’t that we were waiting for it to fruit. Well, it would have been difficult to explain to an outsider what the jackfruit means to us.
 
Kiwi’s mother nevertheless tried, ‘You taste with your tongue but yearn with your heart.’
I chipped in with my bit, ‘Heaven once seen, can never be unseen.’
Ghumphu monkey added, ‘A present for our collective devotion’  
 
By now, Bringa had concluded that if ever there was a loony lot, it was us. She threw one look at Udra and Samudra beside her and shook her head.
 
The resident Otters thought they had to say something now, after all they were the reason we had been so bewitched. Udra said, ‘None of us here will ever eat from this little sapling, but the fact that this plant will grow to be a tree and bear fruits that will provide for our children makes us happy. Hope is a very powerful thing. Let’s keep that and we have a light that will see us through the darkest of days.’ 
 
See you all next week. In the meanwhile, if you would like to write to me, email me at Sparkyatbanyan@gmail.com