Jamun - Indian black berry

It's the Jamun season now. I see a lot of street vendors selling only Jamuns in a woven bamboo basket. I have a special love for these berries. I bought around half a kg of them and I gave it to couple of my friends. Apparently I realised that nobody liked it and they don't even know how to eat it. I never use my teeth to eat them, I use my tongue to squeeze them and this is something I learnt over the years. The color and texture of it associates it with many things from my past. 

Though I hate my school, there is something in the school which brings a smile on my face. There was a Jamun tree in my school, right at the centre of the play ground. It was a magnificent tree with its branches reaching the verandah.

During the school reopening after the summer vacations, the tree will be ready to welcome her students back with all the ripe Jamuns. All the boys would wait patiently till the break time to get a chance to throw stones at the Jamun bunch. As the fruits falls down, I will be ready to pick a few for myself and quickly run away. The Jamuns would often fall on these boys and purple stains will be all over their shirt.

Recently I got to know that that tree has been chopped off and the area has been converted to basketball court. This gave a shock but the tree would always remain close to my heart.