An Unending Story

“The story starts almost like another story: The Sleeping Beauty. However, it is about a seed. There was once a little black seed. It slept peacefully inside the earth for many months while the water kept caressing it. So one day it woke up. 

The seed opened its green eyes and looked at the world around it. It looked at the Ashoka tree that stood tall at some distance and was looking affectionately at the budding seed. The seed smiled and nodded to the tree. Little did it know that one day the tree would become its best friend.

As the sunlight gently touched the bud it started growing, and it grew fast. It was curious and wanted to explore the world, so it kept spreading in all directions. The water and the sunlight, seeing the seed’s thirst for knowledge, kept helping it travel far and wide.

It became a vine.

One day the vine looked at the starry skies, they seemed to beckon it. Now it wanted to travel upwards and meet the stars, so unquenchable was its curiosity.  As it pined for the stars and the moon, the tree who had witnessed the seed’s journey, thought of the ways to help it. One day it asked the sprawling vine to lean on it.

‘Entwine yourself around me and climb upwards. And you might touch the stars one day,’ It told the seed that was now a vibrant vine.

The vine was happy. The happiness wasn’t just about the thought of climbing upwards, it was also about having someone to lean on, having someone to share its dreams and happiness with. It was about having a friend. 

Together the two friends nodded to the wind, played with the sunlight, and conversed with the stars. They also endured harsh blizzards, but they had each other.

As the vine grew and grew, it bore gourds that people happily ate. But some of the gourds that grew on the top, remained hidden. There was a purpose behind it. They had to live on to tell the story.”

I tell this story to the Lilliputians. And show them the dried gourd that I found on the top of an Ashoka tree growing in a house in Garden Town. How I asked the security guard of the house that I badly needed a dried gourd, and how gracious was the guard to pick it for me, is another story.

 “I have brought one of the hidden gourds so you can also hear the story.  Now hear,” I shake the gourd and something jingles inside it.

They are curious. I peel off a little bit of the hardcore, and we have a glimpse of a sponge-like loofah. Their excitement mounts. Together we peel the entire dried gourd. A brand new loofah becomes visible.

“It is used as a bathing sponge. But it hasn’t yet stopped narrating its story,” I tell them, and shake the loofah. It still jingles and the seeds start falling down. 

Omar collects the seeds and washes the loofah.

Now the story has started all over again. Omar daily waters the seeds and they are growing fast. Traveling far and wide.

Omar has plans to sell loofahs…homegrown organic loofahs.

Capitalism has seeped inside the story!