Fireflies: Summer of 87-My Monkey Days

My mom tells me that I was one of those kids who didn't crawl and straightaway walked. And it showed when I was growing up.

I was superactive as a kid one who couldn't stay in one place or one thing for too long. I was into every kind of extra-curricular activities, including but not limited to sports, music, drama, art, not to mention the fist-fights, the tree-rooftop climbs or the uncanny ability to take apart the pieces and put back together every tricycle or four wheels(not the big ones-the kiddie ones) I got as gifts.

I was not exactly a complete nightmare for my parents though.. because no matter how much hard time I gave them with my extra-currics, I definitely made up in my grades in acads. I was what you say a straight A+ student. I was one of those kids who would play all day in the mud but as soon as the lights came up in the house, clean up and sit to do the homework.
Basically, I would oscillate between being responsibly irresponsible and irresponsibly responsible several times in a day.

Lets get to the topic of discussion- My monkey days
Climbing trees was one of my all time favourite passtime. I used to spend majority of my afternoon on one of the trees or under the trees in our orchard. Ah! such carefree days
( Got it in the web, that lill girl is Sooooo Me!)

Our orchard and the kitchen garden was like a huge farmland courtesy my mom. She could easily be crowned one of the best horticulturist around. In Dubai, we get good quality fruits but I have to pay for them. Back in the day, when I was young, buying fruits was an alien concept in our house. If I couldnot pluck it from the trees I wouldnot call it a fruit, be it custard apple, mango, guava, banana, lychee, all kinds of berries, dates, plums, papaya, pinapple. You name it we had it in our backyard. My favourite were "Kalo Jaam" (in the west they call it the Black Plum or Java Plum I guess)

I liked them cause they had great combination of taste- sweet, sour and astringent all put together and also, because they would temporarily make my tongue color purple!

Another fruit I always liked was guava. We had four guava trees and one of them had grown so big , it almost reached the window of my parents bedroom in the first floor of our three storied house.

One afternoon, I climbed onto this tree and after a quick scan set my eyes on a pair of guavas that were perfect for a late afternoon snack.They were almost at the edges of a thin branch. I couldnot stand on the branch without breaking it.If you had climbed a guava tree you would know what I'm talking about.So, I decided to stretch myself to the edge, while standing on a stronger branch. But,as I was finding it difficlut to reach out and pull the pair, I decided to use both my hands to pull them ( I know, I know what you are going to say..man I was so caught up in the act!)
As the fruits came off the branch, THUDD!!!

For a few moments, I went blank. Then I heard my mom's voice" What in Devil's name were you thinking???"
I looked upwards- I could see my mom's worried-angry face on the window.
Then I looked around. I had fallen on my back, the body on the field(so there were no injuries), but left side of my head had hit the edge of the concrete pathway around our house. And yes, the guavas were in my hands.

A few stitches and a few days later I was again ready to monkey around the trees.

I did get myself many gashes before and after this incident. But that fall left a dent on the left corner of the back of my head and hair never really grew on that area.

My mom thinks my idiosyncrasies increased after that incident.

I must add that my mom's usually right about everything she says.....