They were 7 of them. Now there are only 6. The one that grew up with us too had been struck by the thunder they said. Madurai had thunder and lightning a month ago and that has clearly made the coconut trees go through hell as well. Many coconut trees had been struck in the neighborhood and lost their lives too. A week after the strike, one could clearly see the coconuts withering off, leaves falling off and the trunk losing its strength. Basically, it was dying a slow death. 25 years these have stood and as they shelter the swing under, have heard a lot of secrets too!
At about 11 in the morning, the household helper’s son would typically come home in a cycle. He would walk straight into the house to check the count. Most of us at home only had 2 at a time. He would typically then take a walk around to identify the 10 coconuts from all the 7 of them. Then comes the part that both my bro and me would love watching- how Palanichamy climbed the trees. Wow, Sure footed as a mountain goat he was on the trunks that weren’t very broad in their making. Then when they were chipped off from the tree, they fell with a thud. We would run to pick it and put it aside. It wasn’t easy seeing it too-the sun would glare and blind us.
While he is up there he would make serious judgment of the medicines that he needed to buy in the local market. Something like a monthly doctor check up for a pregnant woman. If her baby was big enough to be delivered! The nuts were tender enough to be consumed. He would call out the deficiencies from atop loudly for my mom and grandmom to hear it. Then he would come down and break it open for us. The sweetness of the water varied from tree to tree we said and atleast believed that the sweetness depended on the tree too! While the drink found its way down, we were ready for his axe to split the coconut to scoop out the tender pulp. Wow I loved it too! Patti held her coconut in one hand and the other in the hip and talked to Palanichamy about the further actions to be taken. The urea was a unique mixture too-not like the rest of the plants in the garden. She will then send him off with tips for this chore(that he loved doing. He too took the nut from the second tree like my bro and me as it was the sweetest). Finally, saying that these 7 of them must be taken utmost care as they stood for prosperity and were rooted, ever since the house was made! Now I can repeat that in Tamil without a sigh difference in her tone :) This always made me feel that I belonged to an ancient place!
While my grandmom passed away a good 3 years ago, one of the coconut trees were struck by a very big lightning , had a slow ‘death’ and finally passed away recently. The group of men arranged to come over by Palanichamy assessed the old tree and declared it dead. It was a ceremony. They lit the camphor, prayed together, rang the bell to call the spirits and called us all to see it one last time. Finally, with a lot of climbing, axing and pulling with jute ropes the big fellow was brought down by the men. They cut him in 4 big pieces and then 3 wood merchants from the neighborhood came to assess the wood and declared 3 pieces were amazing furniture wood and took it for a great price. My mom wasn’t happy about it! She clearly mourned the big fellow going. I could tell from the way she didn’t negotiate the price at all. I chipped in to get a few more thousands from the deal and the rest of the day was about looking at our garden pictures that had him stand tall and handsome.
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| Lost his leaves after the lightning! |
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| The strong jute rope to bring him down. |
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| A man up there to cut him off. |
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| The ropes to pull. |
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| The sun glares now too! |
Then of course Palanichamy’s mother asked about the departed tree when she came to clean up in the evening, the milk man asked about it the next morning, the car cleaner who was Palanichamy’s friend told me the next morning while I was in the garden swing, with my coffee and Hindu, that Palanichamy feels very much about the loss and he will come home later to talk about it.
Palanichamy came and a round of talks happened that featured my bro, dad, grandmom and myself. But Me in bad light- guess why?! He told my mom with his tears filled in his eyes that he didn’t expect to see me negotiate with the wood merchant for a tree that was a child in this house. Now!! Come on!! At that moment my husband burst out laughing! Life and times!!Before I left home, Palichamy atleast came three times and brought down more coconuts for all us. And everytime he left , I paid him more than normal to please him and get him over with his sorrow. No avail. He still had his share of the water and cycled back in a pensive mood.
On the day I was leaving he handed in a jute bag of 10 copras to my daughter and smiled a big one at her. “Come in June and I will get you the sweetest coconut! Your mom always liked copras. You will like it too! Tell her to put it in the Karthigai porri!”.
