Mango tree
Since I’ve indulged too much in these talks of gloom and doom as of late, I thought I should share something nice for a change. Well, this is a bit sad too, but in a pleasant way, the kind of sadness you’d feel looking at old school photographs. Anyways, I figured I’d talk about a certain mango tree. Mind you, this is no ordinary mango tree, this is a great big mango tree—greater and bigger than any other mango tree you and I have ever seen. Imagine a trunk like the baobab, roots like a banyan, spreading farther than the mightiest oaks and reaching heights rivalling that of a sequoia. You might be thinking this is a gross exaggeration, and you’re absolutely right, but put yourself in the shoes of five-year-old me, and this would seem an understatement. The tree stood in the front yard just beside the gate of my grandparents’ house in a lesser-known part of Trivandrum. It stretched up and above the whole house, putting the yard in its gentle shade, with its lowest branches close ...