Season of Khajur (Dates)

Wanna eat this?

Is this…acorn???

A young nice guy Anand from Sujata village 

offered me this and I tried cautiously.

Oh, it’s sweet!

And it’s similar to dried fruit dates which I love.

It was not acorn.

 Then, shall we go, Meera-san?

To where?

There!

He pointed a palm tree 

in the backyard of a guest house

in Sujata village,

"SACHI HOME-Sujata Yoga Resort".

I and other two young Indians followed him.

One of them climbed the palm tree with a long stick.

Two of them opened a wide cloth and we were ready.

The man on the tree drops fruit of the tree 

by the stick and others collect them under the tree.

They pick the fruit 

which dropped on the ground 

by hand and eat directly also.

The fruit is called “khajur” in Hindi 

and actually, it is dates.

On the other hand, 

fruit of toddy palm is called koa.

Few weeks ago, 

you could see village people 

climbing the toddy palms 

to take koa and eating under the trees.

Jelly like koa was also nice, 

but the season is already passed.

The shell of koa is very hard 

and there are few portion to eat.

 There are kinds of palms 

and the seasons of the fruit 

and tastes are completely different.

Villagers know about surrounding plants very well. 

They know which is consumable 

and when is the season 

and don’t miss the gift from the nature.

I feel it is a rich life rooted to the earth 

and the people live here have real zest to live.

From Meera