A long drawn out monthly manager's meeting...8 of us 'managers' in turn updating the Director and other manager on the status of projects we were each responsbile for. Can't say it was very enthralling stuff. Difficult sitting through other's updates...and I was 7th in line. Yawn.
As I shifted in my seat for the nth time, I looked out of a window on the other side and spied pale white jamruls (love apple, star apple, wax apple) with just the barest tinge of green. Was the tree inside our compound or on the neighbours? Atlast the meeting which began at 10.30 am drew to a close at 4. I rushed downstairs with a cup of tea in my hand and there it was - a tree laden with jamrul. Thoka-thoka would be the word for laden in bengali and somehow, it was exactly that. 'Laden' just couldn't do justice to the sight I beheld!! I cajoled Ashok the driver to give me a hand. Using a long forked stick (which was conveniently at hand), Ashok bent the branches laden and I plucked the jamruls. Very soon, I had enough for all (nearly 40 of us) with plenty still left on the higher branches. We went around distributing them to all and everyone said that these were the sweetest jamruls they had eaten in a long while.
I took my share (one) and kept it on my desk and got busy with the actually work (as opposed to meeting about work which we spent the entire day on). When I finished it was past 8pm. I switched off the lights, fans, PC, locked the room and walked out with my bag, lunch box, water bottle and that solitary jamrul! Funny, I never go ga-ga about jamrul normally. Rarely do I actually buy them from the market to eat. But getting them fresh off the tree was so much fun. The whole office was empty. Nearly. No one upstairs and only Prabirda downstairs, who usually leaves much after the rest as he waits for the night guard to arrive. I gave the last one to him along with the entire adventure (much more interesting than 'hey I went to the bazaar and bought a packet of jamruls)! I walked out without having tasted a single one but seriously I felt like I had eaaten the entire packet by myself!
2 comments:
Ah the joy of sharing...I'm much into jamruls myself, but I bet I would have freaked out at the sight too...Maybe I lived in a village in my last life, I'm soo attracted to that kind of stuff, you know what I mean?
Ah! Is that so...I did wonder about my freaking out. I sent another of my colleagues for another round of jamruls and he complied. But this morning when I mentioned coconut on a tree nearby ... everyone looked quite wary :-(
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