AWED

Bitter-gourd Vines - How Sweet!

"I got tired of telling your Thatha to go get some rope for the bitter-gourd vines. I told him so many times but he never listened. So when your Mama had come, I showed him a bunch of useless wires and asked him if wanted them. He said no - so I tied them up for the bitter-gourd vines."

Ammachi said that in a matter-of-factly tone, after my sister and I finished exclaiming how awesome and funny her idea was.

Initially when I opened the back door, I was first a bit surprised to see a dense and slanting curtain of bitter-gourd vines. It had been just a couple of vines the last time I saw it. I commented to Thatha, "This is alright for Ammachi and that Ayya who comes to do the dishes since they're short. You, Yaghavi and I can't even stand upright here!"

I was in for a bigger surprise when Yaghavi trashed into the hall laughing uncontrollably and said, "Yazhini, you have to look at the bitter-gourds - Ammachi has used earplug wires and what-not to tie them up!" 

On seeing small bitter-gourds hanging next to earplugs myself , I cracked up and thumped a too-busy-to-be-beaming Ammachi on the back. Then she offered the story of how this came to be [which was characteristically laced with criticism against Thaths (yup, we call Thatha Thaths)]. 

Ammachi is a resourceful gardener. In a medium-sized area, she has grown bananas, hibiscus, lemon, lemongrass, curry-leaves, tomatoes, tulsi, henna, moringa, chilly, broad-beans, papaya and a host of leafy greens and medicinal plants. And of course. bitter-gourd. 

She can be enigmatic sometimes, though, insisting that spiders are bad for the plants and must not be allowed to build their webs on them, brushing aside all your explanations defending the eight-legged creature.

Coming to earplugs, no one in the house uses them. Only recently Yaghavi started using a pair of headphones. So, the earplugs which come with mobile phones become e-waste in a way as soon as they enter our house. 

Ammachi is already against earplugs. She says they make you deaf. I don't argue with that. Having had to interact with quite a few people who are hard of hearing - I too don't use them at all.

Ammachi never directly throws away anything. So, she found an unconventional use for the earplug wires lying around. 

Isn't that an admirable piece of jugaad?

By the way, I really like bitter-gourds. And of course, Ammachi gave us some along with more of her garden produce.