There are many trees in the forest but why was cherry tree special for Rakesh and the grandfather? From the study the cherry tree
Answers
One day, when Rakesh was six, he walked from the Mussoorie bazaar eating cherries. They were a little sweet, a little sour; small, bright red cherries, which had come all the way from the Kashmir valley.
Here in the Himalayan foothills where Rakesh lived, there were not many fruit trees. The soil was stony, and the dry cold winds stunted the growth of most plants. But on the more sheltered slopes there were forests of oak and deodar.
Rakesh lived with his grandfather on the outskirts of Mussoorie, just where the forest began.
Grandfather was a retired forest ranger. He had a little cottage out side the town.
Rakesh was on his way home from school when he bought the cherries. He paid fifty paisa for the bunch. It took him about half an hour to walk home, and by the time he reached the cottage there were only three cherries left.
‘Have a cherry, grandfather,’ he said, as soon as he saw grandfather in the garden.
Grand father took one cherry and Rakesh promptly ate the other two. He kept the last seed in his mouth for some time, rolling it round and round on his tongue until all the tang had gone. Then he placed the seed on the palm of his hand and studied it.
‘Are cherry seeds lucky?’ asked Rakesh.
‘Of course.’
‘Nothing is lucky if you put it away. If you want luck, you must put it to some use.’
‘What can I do with a seed?’
‘Plant it.’
So Rakesh found a small spade and began to dig up a flower-bed.
‘Hey, not there,’ said grandfather. ‘I’ve sown mustard in that bed. Plant it in that shady corner, where it won’t be disturbed.’
Rakesh went to a corner of the garden where the earth was soft and yielding. He did not have to dig. He pressed the seed into the soil with his thumb and it went right in.
Then he had his lunch, and ran off to play cricket with his friends, and forgot all about the cherry seed.
When it was winter in the hills, a cold wind blew down from the snows and went whoo-whoo-whoo in the deodar trees, and the garden was dry and bare. In the evenings grandfather and rakesh sat over a charcoal fire, and grandfather told rakesh stories – stories about people who turned into animals, and ghosts who lived in trees, and beans that jumped and stones that wept – and in turn rakesh would read to him from the news paper, Grandfather’s eyesight being rather weak. Rakesh found the news paper very dull – especially after the stories – but grand father wanted all the news…
They knew it was spring when the wild duck flew north again, to Siberia. Early in the morning, when he got up to chop wood and light a fire, rakesh saw the V shaped formation streaming northwards and heard the calls of birds clearly through the thin mountain air.
One morning in the garden he bent to pick up what he thought was a small twig and found to his surprise that it was well rooted. He stared at it for a moment, then ran to fetch grandfather, calling, ‘Dada, come and look, the cherry tree has come up!’
‘What cherry tree?’ Asked grandfather, who had forgotten about it.
‘The seed we planted last year – look, it’s come up!’
Rakesh went down on his haunches, while Grandfather bent almost double and peered down at the tiny tree. It was about four inches high.
‘Yes, it’s a cherry tree,’ said grandfather. ‘You should water it now and then.’
Rakesh ran indoors and came back with a bucket of water.
‘ drown it!’ said grandfather.