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The old guava tree

jaijui
jaijui / 16 yrs ago /
  87

                                                      
                   


Saru was the only daughter of wealthy parents. Her father and mother doted over her , she could not help but notice what a loving couple they  were .


As long as she could rememeber they were always together very rarely separated except on rare occasions when her mother went for  "maherpan "to her native place


When Saru got married it was a lavish wedding.The groom Datta was not from Mumbai,so her parents gave her their beautiful house as a dowry and moved to the upper floors.


As her parents became old and feeble she would often find them in the garden talking to each other under a lovely guava ( peru ) tree they had planted at Saru's birth.


It was quite big now and somehow or the other Saru's father could always find a ripe guava to give to his wife even when Saru could not see any.


Saru always wanted a child whereas her husband Datta absolutely did not want one and insisted that she take the necessary precautions to avoid being pregnant.


Well! Saru was getting close to 36 years of age and it was now or never. She stopped taking contraceptive pills and was soon pregnant with child much to the delight of her parents and chagrin of her husband.


It was soon to be followed by tragedies one after the other .


Saru's mother died in her sleep around the time she became pregnant and her devastated father soon followed.
 Perhaps the child to be born was waiting to receive the soul of the grandmother 
Saru was desolate and to make things worse her husband Datta lost interest in her and started spending more time at work than home .


Saru would sadly sit under the guava tree. Strangely she noticed that ever since her parents had died the tree had not produced a single guava.


At the time of Saru's delivery , Datta was vacationing with friends in the Maldives and it was Saru's family who took care of her . The child came a little early.It was a sweet baby girl. She was also a Mongol . In other words she had Down's syndrome .It mattered not to Saru as she knew she would love her darling daughter even more.


The problem was Datta , the father . When he came back from the Maldives and found that he was the father of a mongol child he was initially stunned ,then very angry and finally in denial. He refused to look at his own daughter who was named Asha , after Saru's mother .


Although she had the features of a mongol , Asha's emotional and intellectual capacity was close to that of a normal child.


She wondered why her Daddy never spoke to her or why he walked out of the room when she came in.It affected her so badly that she stopped talking ,except saying a few words to her mother .


It was noticed that Asha would spend her time under the guava tree alone talking to herself .


Strangely the tree which had stopped producing fruits began showing signs of new guavas growing again.


Asha would climb the lower branches and pluck a ripe guava which she would lovingly present to her mother .More time was spent under the guava tree than in the house .Saru did not mind. Whatever made the child happy.


As the child Asha became a teenager she started humming tunes which startled the mother . They were the same tunes that Saru's mother used to sing to her when she was a child.


It was uncanny almost unreal. When she asked her daughter who had taught her the tunes the teenager would only smile. She seemed to be more mature and happier as time passed by.


Once looking out of the window, Saru saw that her daughter had climbed to the top of the tree at least 20 feet above ground to pick a big ripe yellow guava. The girl slipped with the guava still clutched in her hand . Her rmother Saru screamed in fear and almost rushed out when she saw the strong branches as if swayed by the wind.( but there was no breeze ) come together to catch Asha long enough to break the fall. 
She was so happy that her daughter was safe that she forgot about the bizarre incident.


Sadly Saru developed acute leukemia and was soon close to death. Asha who was now fifteen never left her mother's side ,although Saru would catch her wistfully looking out of the window at the guava tree .


Her father Datta came in the room only once at Saru's deathbed telling mother and daughter that upon Saru's death he had arranged for his daughter Asha to be taken to an orphanage.


This shock was too much for Saru. That same night she lost consciousness. Asha held her mother's hand all the time until she died.


It was monsoon time and a violent storm with lightning and thunder and heavy gusts of wind shook the windows.


The family members on Saru's side kept on crying in their grief and no one noticed that Asha had slipped away


It was dawn before they noticed that Asha was missing. They searched all over the house for her .Then they went into the garden and received a shock.The guava tree had toppled over ,uprooted.


One of the servants noticed a patch of coloured cloth within the tree . They all ran towards it .


It was Asha and she was dead. Her arms were wrapped around the trunk of the tree. The branches of the tree had been bent mysteriously like the arms of a lover cradling his beloved.


There was  a happy contented smile on her face that remained unchanged even when the chain saws were brought in to cut off the branches around her .


Strangest of all there was not a scratch on Asha's body or face .






jaijui / / 16 yrs ago
jaijui

roli ,
many thanks glad u liked the post
btw i love ur name :)

jaijui


Roli V. Malhotra / / 16 yrs ago
Roli V. Malhotra

Wonderful!


jaijui / / 16 yrs ago
jaijui

mayaonline,

oh ok i will then ..yeah Im curious to see what its about ..thanks ..
see i dont have those channels but im not a huge TV watcher ..so i dont subscirbe to many


jaijui


mayaonline / / 16 yrs ago
mayaonline

Yup, liked both the stories. The korean one was more of a psychological horror thriller, whatever! The name of the movie is 'Acacia'. Just google and u'll get more info. It'll b fun 2 go thru something similar. V get the channels 'Lumiere' and 'UTV world movies' both which carry some fantastic world movies with English sub titles.


jaijui / / 16 yrs ago
jaijui

hey maya ,
welcome to my space
I dont watch Korean movies nor have i heard of this one
all my stories come out of my imagination ..
hope u liked the movie as well as my story
jaijui


mayaonline / / 16 yrs ago
mayaonline

I saw a Korean movie similar like this about a small boy. But that was a diffrnt tree. Acacia.


jaijui / / 16 yrs ago
jaijui

Wizzie baby ,
thanks very much for appreciating ..i suppose i love nature so much it comes out pleasingly this way
arre mujhey slot mein mat daal ..
meteors bhi ? that was a shot in the dark and ur genre actually

jaijui


Wizardprince / / 16 yrs ago
Wizardprince

Hi Jai,

How did I miss this superb story? It is beautiful, scary, paranormal and at the same time a real heart wrenching write up. You should write only about trees or meteors because they bring out the best in you. :))

WP


jaijui / / 16 yrs ago
jaijui

varu ven,
lol ! if he had stuck around .. the guava tree might just have done that .. crushed Datta ..
the house could have been spooked ..haunted like u said ..
i would put it down the deaths as as coincidental though

thanks for appreciating :)

jaijui


varu ven / / 16 yrs ago
varu ven

hi jaijui

spooky reeeally!!

  i wish the guava tree fell on datta's head and crushed him!

..and lookin' at the story from diffrent angle it could've been titled "hounted house" with all those  tragedies hittin' the family one after the other.

Nicely writen as always.

vv