The Avocado Tree

It was almost two decades back when Meeta, joined our team in Mindtree, Bangalore. She was a specialist and a subject matter expert in Travel industry. In a team where everyone had certain defined ways of working, she brought in a wave of fresh air with new thoughts, ideas and perspectives which were alien to us.

Among the many thoughts she shared, I was particularly interested in her love for plants and everything to do with nature. She was quite excited when I explained to her about the backyard we had in Kerala and the variety of fruit trees, medicinal as well as flowering plants we had there. All thanks to the interest dad and mom had for gardening.

One day Meeta came to office with something that looked like a small ball. The brown colour object was in fact a seed of avocado which she asked me to take back home and give to my dad so that he can plant it. I happily agreed to that.

I had already planned a trip home to Kerala that weekend and took the avocado seed with me. As soon as I reached home, I handed over the precious cargo to dad and told him about the fruit and all its benefits about which Meeta had taken a crash course for me earlier. Those were the times when people in my hometown had not heard about avocadoes, let alone have a tree in the backyard.

Dad especially was blessed with green fingers that everything he planted came up quite well. It was not different for the avocado seed as well. Shortly enough, he gave me the update that the sapling is growing, and we would soon have an avocado tree coming up in our backyard. Probably, he felt it needed a special attention that he planted the seed right outside his bedroom.

Years went by. After about six or seven years of planting the seed, one day dad called me and broke the exciting news that the tree had flowered and had a tiny avocado fruit on it. The excitement was so contagious that I promptly passed the happiness to Meeta. Since that day she wanted to come home and see the beautiful orchard dad and mom had been maintaining back home.

Many more years passed. The avocado tree yielded fresh and tasty fruits in hundreds. Over the next few years our home became the talk of our little town as one with an avocado tree, a rarity then. Dad was quite happy. So was Meeta and me. The avocado tree stood quite high giving the much-needed shade to the bedroom of dad and mom.

Three years ago, after a brave fight to cancer, dad left us. The tree had witnessed many beautiful moments dad shared with us. I am quite sure the tree must have wept bitterly as it saw dad lying in a coffin and eventually taken to the church for his final journey.

They say plants have similar emotions as humans. Not sure if it was grief or not able to receive the love from my dad anymore, the avocado tree started to lean slightly. Over a period, the angle was getting dangerously low that everyone feared that one day the tree will uproot itself and along with it, a portion of the house will get destroyed.

I had moved to Dubai with my family a few years back and during my trip home this year, it came as a shocking surprise one day when mom told me that they had to cut down the tree as it was reaching a tipping point where it would have resulted in a major impact on the house. I was filled with all sorts of emotions, right from the brown seed Meeta gave me, till the time dad said a mute goodbye to the tree.

I stood in silence next to the beloved avocado tree, now reduced to a tiny trunk almost at the ground level. At that moment, I am sure dad stood next to me.

It was a stark reminder about life. As soon as you leave this world, people start associating you to memories. The physical objects connected to you will remain relevant for some more time. After they also reach their time, even they get discarded or forgotten. A few more years and maybe a generation later, you do not even remain in anyone’s memory.

Live your life today, healthy and happy.

Conquering my fear!

Unlike the previous years, as a family we decided to return to Dubai after a short vacation back home in Kerala. Summer holidays for kids continued and the school was meant to reopen by end of August. Since we could not do much on the weekdays, we all looked forward to the weekends to have our special time together as a family. We usually found an attraction or an experience we never had in the past and the excitement of going somewhere new always filled the air on Saturday mornings.

Today was not different. We decided to pay a visit to Mountain Extreme, the largest indoor climbing and bouldering gym in Dubai. Both our kids were super excited at the prospect of climbing the heights and having lots of fun. We reached the place around noon. After a quick registration, we got into our climbing gear with safety harness and special climbing shoes. It was followed by safety instructions to ensure that we understood the dos and don’ts of this extreme sport.

Soon after the briefing was completed, the instructor showed a demo of how to safely climb up and slide down. All of us started climbing one by one. Though I had done this many years ago during my visit to an adventure park, it felt quite a strain in the initial minutes, probably due to lack of exercise or reduced exposure to such extreme sports in the recent past. Having said that, kids seemed to be quite a natural when it came to mountain climbing.

A few attempts into the climb, I managed to reach halfway the wall. While the climb was strenuous, I could attain considerable heights. But there was one area I struggled. Once I reached a point where I decided it was better to slide down, I found an inertia to leave the grip on the wall and allow the auto belay, the supporting rope system to take me down in a controlled manner. Though I did let the auto belay do its job, I guess, I did not fully trust the mechanism. This ended up me experiencing a rough sliding each time I came down.

After a few hours and multiple attempts, I almost decided that I am good at climbing and even reached the top, but not that good at sliding down. My fear of sliding down got the better of me. I even declared that I am done with all the climbing and was mentally ready to return home accepting the fact that I am not good at sliding down.

While a bit dejected, I sat down to wait for my kids to finish their rounds. My ten-year-old little one, continued to climb up and slide down like a pro. Watching her made me feel even more disheartened since I was wondering if my little daughter could do something like that, I should be able to do that as well. I waited for her to come down from top and checked with her how she did the sliding down so effortlessly. She advised me how it was done.

I decided not to succumb to the fear. I connected the harness again and climbed up the wall. Reached halfway and followed the exact advice given by my daughter. It worked wonderfully! I was so excited that I climbed a few more times and each time the slide down was better than before.

The trip home was something akin to a General who won an impossible battle. There will always be fears in our lives that we will face. Many of us will try to conquer them, with some succeeding and others failing. Look around, find ways of winning from others, irrespective of how accomplished they are. We will never know who could be the one to motivate us towards our success.

To fear is human, to conquer that is divine!