Hmm… Come summer and its the season of mangoes everywhere .. Now you will be thinking what Al Qaeda has to do with mangoes ..? Yup … they have something indeed… Well .. this boring Sunday noon reminds me of an incident that took place two years ago ..
My Dad … always wanting to have lots of greenaries in our garden, has grown so much plants and shrubs and whatnots in our yard .. Among them is a big tree of mango .. I suspect it was planted all because of his sheer liking of the fruit but thats another story … It was planted when we moved to this place .. thats some 14 years ago .. and now its a big tree and it produce fruit every year .. And with every crop of unripe mangoes, come a lot of children – all having lots of stones in their hands … Trying to get their hands on mangoes .. they stone the poor tree whole day ..They run when I yell at them .. I say heck .. that stone just landed near my solar panel … And these children .. they hide when they hear the door opening .. they just vanish as the sky was raining the stones .. Its all because of their gurilla tactics we named them Al Qaeda … Afghanistan invasion was a hot news topic those days so Al Qaeda was a buzzword .. So there were these Al Qaeda people .. attacking the tree … and vanishing when I try to catch any of them ..
Usually they didnt come on holidays as they knew I was around and didnt want to get caught .. But some desperate guys dared to attack on Sundays too .. This anecdote is about one of them .. It was a Sunday noon like this .. I was getting bored with watching news so decided to check the surroundings from the terrace .. When I reached the terrace I heard small whispers in our backyard (The mango tree is in backyard) .. Hehe . … Al Qaeda guys .. I grinned .. Time to catch them .. So I decided to have a peek .. I saw through the branches .. there were two of them .. Hiding against the neighbor’s wall … They threw stones and waited for any response . .. And then collected the mangoes when they saw nobody is watching them .. Grr .. I have to catch them … So I descended and walked out of my house and take a long turn to reach the backside of our neighbours .. The kids were busy collecting stones for their next attack .. I slowly advanced towards them and when I was real close one of them saw me .. “Bhaagoo ..!!” He yelled .. and both of them started running in different directions .. “You can’t ..!!” I heard myself yelling …
I decided to chase the bigger kid … He was running fast and was trying to get into our playground from where he can jump the wall on the other side of colony .. He ran fast but he was no match for my running skills .. Damn .. I play cricket regularly .. This kiddo cant run from me .. And when he was just about to jump to the wall I caught him .. I think I served him a slap or two .. but I dont remember .. The kid started crying as soon as I caught him … “It wasnt me bhai ..!! I was just collecting the fruit..!!” but I wasnt in any mood to leave him .. “You were stealing fruits from my garden .. I will give you to the police” . .. I told him … Hearing Police’s name the kid’s crying got louder .. I caught his arm and start pulling him towards our house so that Dad can decide about his punishment .. The kid continued his crying and protests .. I met one of my friends Shafi when I was halfway .. He asked “Al Qaeda guy ..?” pointing to the boy .. I said “Yes .. Now I am gonna hand over him to Allied forces ..” We both laughed at it … Shafi also started scaring the kid about the hardships that police gave to thievs …
So we reached our home within a minute .. three of us … Dad was in the frontyard reading newspaper .. .. I told him that I caught this boy stealing mangoes from our garden .. ( Dad also knew we call these boys Al Qaeda ) . . . Okay .. He also started scaring the boy telling him that we will hand him over to the police .. I asked “Who was with you ..??” ( A faint image of bollywood movies emerged in my mind but I snubbed it ) .. “Nobody was with me .. I wasnt throwing stones .. I was just passing by … and when I saw fruits I just started to pick them …” said the boy .. “Where do you live .. whats your father’s name ..” .. The boy didnt reply to this .. “Okay .. your father will pickup you from lock up..” .. “Whats your name ..” asked Shafi .. the boy was now on top of his cries .. said ..”Osama ..!” … Osama ..? We both looked at each other … … “Bin Laden ..? ” asked Shafi … now trying hard to control his laugh … The boy had evidently never heard of Bin Laden as he just stared blankly and kept crying … About then .. I couldnt control my laughter and all of us burst into laugh … The boy stared at us astoshingly as to gather what happened .. “Okay .. Now I will leave you but you’ll have to clean all those stones from our backyard ..” .. The boy wanted to buy anything for his freedom .. He said ..”Okay sir ..I’ll do it ..” … “And what is the name of the one with you ..?” Asked Shafi .. The kiddo didnt reply again …. Anyways ..he picked all the stones from our backyard and then I let him go … He promised he’ll never steal fruits from our garden again …
So that ended a small episode of fun … Shafi and I wondered if the other boy was Saddam Hussein .. We never knew cauz he didnt return .. Atleast I didnt see him again ..
Now the mangoes are on again .. and so are the boys … This year they have introduced a new trick .. All of them have catties ..They shoot stones from the catty … it dont make much sound ..so they collect the fruit and leave silently .. I have caught many of them but havnt got a hand to the top brass of Al Qaeda again …
Idiot.. 😉
Venkat..
Lol =))
lol.. tht was cool… 😀
Hmm….lol
cool… this WordPress theme looks good… hey but where’s header… no text there??
…. 😥 😥 … hey lucky man… *arrange* a ecwhost for me 😥 😥 😉
hmmm..cool one..but just wanna know where mango tree in your backyard…..
cool, you got your self a job wtih FBI as they could not even find one person fro al qaeda and you caught top one in a few days.
the appointment letter is lying with me come and collect 😛
Lol Sumeet .. Come back to Bhopal and I’ll show you the tree … Abay that tree has to sacrifice its branches whenever there is a Pooja anywhere in the neighbourhood .. :p ..
@ Doc .. Lol .. Okay .. Lemme find the nearest train to Surat .. :p
ROFL =))
I think you scared away Osama that is the reason FBI hasn’t caught him yet! BRAVO /:)
Lol
Hehe! Good one, Shahab! 😉
LOL,
did he actually say that line?
“it waaznt me”
Hahhahaa … 😛 .. Whatever, he wasnt my inspiration for the nick .. 😀 ..
LOL 😀 very funny
i want to watch bollywood movies because they are very colorful and lively~’;