Veranda Tales-Fallen leaves

Storytelling has been an integral part of my life since childhood. I grew up listening to stories during the hot summer evenings and nights with my cousins. Mothers and grandmothers would gather all of us children for story time. It was usually pitch dark except for a very faint light coming from the flickering candle. Power cuts were as frequent as the hot and humid summer days. We all spread out on a cool concrete floor or bamboo mats on the veranda intently listening to fascinating stories about kings, queens, princes, princesses, and peasants alike. Stories about love, life, families, and people entertained and taught us life skills. These stories transported us to distant worlds, strange yet familiar. Often the same story told by two people sounded different as storytellers added new twists and turns adding their personal style and flair to the stories.

Storytelling wasn’t limited to summer evenings and bedtime. I was surrounded by adults who didn’t pass up an opportunity to share their wisdom using the art of storytelling. These rich vibrant oral traditions include songs, poems, stories, and సామెతలు (Sametalu are proverbs in Telugu). Men and women sing songs as they work in the fields, grinding grains and spices and doing other daily chores at their homes. Stories are often used to teach important life lessons, interpersonal skills, and survival skills. These stories and the time spent listening to them made our lives richer leaving an impression on me. This series is all about reliving those memories as I share these stories.

కిందాకు రాలె మీదాకు నవ్వే (kindaaku raale meedaaku navve)

The only deciduous tree I was familiar with during my childhood was బూరుగ దూది చెట్టు (boorugu doodi checttu is Silk Cotton or Kapok tree in Telugu) in our backyard. It would shed all its leaves during the fall in coastal Andhra Pradesh. All of its branches were covered in pale yellowish white colored flowers in December and you couldn’t really see the branches. The whole tree was draped in silky flowers. December mornings were beautiful and serene with dew drops covering the leaves and glistened in the soft morning sunlight. The బూరుగ దూది చెట్టు (booraga doodi checttu) in our backyard was full of రామచిలకలు (Rama chilakalu or Rama parrots or Rose ringed parakeets) hopping from branch to branch singing in chorus. రామచిలక (Rama chilaka) is a beautiful green colored bird with a red beak and males have a red collar around their neck. It is the state bird of Andhra Pradesh. I remember watching the birds from my backyard in the mornings. This bird is named after రామ (Rama) because it is believed that their calls sound like they are chanting Rama’s name.

These beautiful flowers soon turned into green fruits and then dried into brown pods full of silk cotton. During summers, అమ్మ (Amma is mother Telugu) harvested them to extract cotton from them. We all sat in a room breaking brown pods, extracting cotton separating the cotton from the seeds. We were surrounded by cotton and it was all over us. This fluffy and silky cotton was stuffed into pillows అమ్మ (Amma) stitched. She would stitch the three sides and leave an opening to stuff the cotton. She would seal the opening once they are stuffed with cotton. The silk cotton smelled wonderful and felt soft.

Fall is a beautiful time in my neck of the woods where I live now. Having grown up in a tropical place where it is green and vibrant all year round, it was a shock to my senses to see the leaves change colors and finally drop down into the ground. These seasonal changes are dramatic indeed. I have seen old leaves turn brown and fall to the ground, but not all at once when I was growing up.

It is hard to choose a favorite season. Trees look majestic in all four seasons. I do favor spring and fall. Trees are covered with delicate green leaves during the early spring. Trees bloom in spring covering the ground with different colored petals and with the scent permeating in the air. In fall they clothe themselves in colorful leaves. These leaves change colors and fall to the ground. Colorful leaves take turns falling to the ground. Leaves of different colors, sizes, and shapes cover the ground. Walking on the street crushing the dry leaves that accumulated along the side of the road is simply delightful. The naked trees endure harsh winter winds and snow for the next six months before they start to bud out in spring time.

Do the leaves that are still on the tree laugh or cry for the fallen ones? కిందాకు రాలె మీదాకు నవ్వే (kindaaku raale meedaaku navve) sameta says fresh green leaves on the tree appear to be laughing at the ones that are on the ground. This sameta offers a deeper meaning about how we view progression of our lives from young age to old. When we are younger we don’t think that one day we will become old. It is just a natural progression we seem to pay little to no attention to until old age is upon us. When I was ten years old, anybody in their twenties looked old to me, now pushing sixty, anybody in their seventies look old to me. I am going to walk in their shoes soon enough. We don’t fully understand the predicaments of old age when we have youth on our side.

This sameta reminds us of the fact that we shouldn’t underestimate the wisdom of our elders. If we think we know better than our elders, we miss out on an opportunity to learn important life lessons from them. On the flip side, people who are younger to us have a lot to teach us. My children teach me something new everyday and challenge my assumptions to be a better person.

This sameta reminds me to value people around me whether they are younger or older and that every leaf will eventually find its resting place on the ground. The process repeats over and over until the end of time. It is hard to not to think about the parallel between the leaves and human lives. We all one day disappear like a fallen leaf. It is important to remember and pay respects to the people who walked the paths and lived on this earth before us. Most of all enjoy and cherish the company of people around making meaningful connections and memories that endure beyond our time on this earth.