Salubrious Sunday | The picturesque tree with gigantic leaves

The next day, I again watched the sun play peek-a-boo through the gaps in the trees branches, and its dark green foliage; again, I captured a few picturesque sun and shadow photographs and felt enriched.

While in the hill town of Mahabaleshwar, a tree with gigantic leaves, around two to three times the size of my palm, caught my eye. Marvelling at nature’s exquisite composition, I took a couple of photographs to share with parents and friends, who like me are ardent nature lovers, and walked on.

This was the first time I had seen the deliciously supple and seedy anjeer growing on a tree as opposed to the plucked figs laid out on a fruits seller’s cart in the bustling streets of Mumbai. (Representative Image/Unsplash)

The next day, I again watched the sun play peek-a-boo through the gaps in the trees branches, and its dark green foliage. Again, I captured a few picturesque sun and shadow photographs and felt enriched. On the third day, I decided to climb down the hill to see the exquisite tree bottom-up. I wanted to explore a little more to catch a glimpse of its bark and base – the woody portion that lay hidden from the regular view. And what I saw left me open-mouthed. There were fruits sticking out of its trunk!

Some grew in bunches of three and four, and a couple of them in isolation. And they were fairly recognisable – I heard myself say aloud, “Oh! So that’s how figs grow!!”

This was the first time I had seen the deliciously supple and seedy anjeer growing on a tree as opposed to the plucked anjeer laid out on a fruits seller’s cart in the bustling streets of Mumbai.

The sight left me thrilled for two reasons. One, of course, it was educative to see the fig tree. I could visualise the journey of the semi-ripe brown fruit to the sweet, red, dried pulp we spoon out of fig jam bottles. And two, well, had I not shown the interest and inclination to know the tree a bit better, would I have ever discovered that it was a fig tree? No. And that was despite the fruits popping out of it in bundles, and waving to us, “Hey there! We’re figs!”

What if I had not made the effort to go a little further, step down the hill a bit more, and see the tree in its entirety? What if I hadn’t cared to look beyond the gigantic green leaves? Well, I would have returned from Mahabaleshwar with green eyes, yes, but ignorant nevertheless.

As is the case usually, the experience made me reflect a bit about life, particularly how little we understand the people we meet, those we spend time with, cross in the garden and say good morning, purchase groceries from, and even our colleagues and domestic help.

People, whom we are sometimes quick to judge. People we think we know, but probably we do not. We might cross the tree with gigantic leaves every day, we might smile at its lovely greens, we might even become more than acquaintances and take pictures together, and yet, we may never really know it was a fig tree.

anushasingh3@gmail.com

(Anusha Singh is a Mumbai-based corporate communications consultant)