Love Apples……. Reach ………Musica !!!!!
The other day my boss, my colleague (friend) and myself went out for a stroll in the lanes near the place where we work. My boss had a craving for ‘guavas’ (‘amrud’- hindi translation). While we desperately searched for a cart that sold that fruit we discussed our childhood and the things that we used to do. The conversation went from school days, to the commonality between the phrases used by our parents, finally drifting towards how we used to climb trees are pick the fruits.
As we walked along there was no sign of the guava seller only apples and bananas being sold until, I ended up making the following statement, “ I can see so many fruit , apples, bananas and now sweet limes except guavas” (ok ,it was a large distance away and it turned out the sweet limes were really guavas, which we realized a few steps later)
Muching the masala and salt coated guava, we discussed how we used to sneak out and pick these fruit from the tree as kids. Happily contributing to the conversation, I shared another childhood story, talking about how we used to pile open umbrellas and cover it with a bed sheet to make a tent. Continuing I spoke about how we each used to bring something to share from tamrind , to sev , to rasna (in those days a loved drink), to bimblis, to love apples…….. Now here is where the real story begins ………….
Neither of them knew what ‘bimblis’ or ‘love apples’ were, and for the life of me I did not know the Hindi translation for the same. So they happily started stating that I had invented a new fruit, with a fond fascination for the word ‘love-apples’. My bright spark colleague tells my boss, you see she may be using the wrong name and happily narrated the incident where I called turmeric – saffron. To try and salvage what little of a face I had left I asked two other colleagues near by for the translation. (Knowing that they had probably heard of the fruit). They didn’t know the Hindi work, but at least they new the fruit!!(Ha, I can show my face in public again)
Today, my boss started asking a few other friends if the knew what ‘love-apples’ were, my colleague( friend) joined in hoping to have some fun. Little did she realize how the conversation would turn….. So they started (btw the Hindi word I found out is ‘Jamb’), and moved to the desk of another boss who heard only ‘love-apple’ to which she asked.
(ok I was trying to avoid using her name but its going to get too complicated – my colleague (friend) is Sangeeta). GETTING BACK
“Sangeeta produces ‘love-apples’?”……my boss added “Sangeeta, produces ‘love-apple’!!!” We took one look at each other and burst out laughing. Another colleague Rama added “Sangeeta produces ‘love-apple’ in her backyard?” While another colleague Arati repeated laughing “Sangeeta produces ‘love-apple’ in her backyard !!!”. With yet another colleague joining the conversation hearing the laughter at this end.
“Sangeeta produces ‘love-apple’, are you talking about the thing that appears when she smiles?”. We all laughed ever louder while Vicky added “Adi, are you trying to flirt with Sangeeta” . Adi’s reply , “ you know I once wrote a poem about a girls smile”……my boss, “you wrote a poem about Sangeeta?” . By this time my boss and I had tears rolling down our cheeks as we laughed ….sangeeta laughing too, trying to cover her cheek to hide the blush that was coming on. Adi “the poem that I wrote earlier was not about her” so my boss added “so, are you going to now write a poem about her – three key works – sangeeta , love- apple and smile” . Adi, “I’ll use Musica , after all I can’t use her name in the poem , have to conceal her identity !!!”
By now I was holding my stomach and tears of laughter were rolling down my cheeks, -were we all in splits. We were creating a loud racket at this point, and slowly started to disperse before the HR –dept came down to scream at us. But the one thing we all did not forget to do is bid farewell to
‘Musica and get one last glimpse of her ‘love-apple’ producing smile’
(NOTE: I think this ‘love-apple’ word is only know in the Goan community , cause no one else in the office has heard it being called by this name.)
