Castor Seeds

By Pulkita Anand

Once upon a time, haha, not in Fairyland but the farmland of Niki’s grandparents’ farm, she and her cousin had an adventure. Oh! No, it was a misadventure. She was bigger than her cousin, in size as well as in age.

She enjoyed most of her fun-filled days at her grandparents’ home and farm. The days were filled with their love and affection. It was just fun and fun. Hurrah! No study. It was like a Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn life. She was an apple of everyone’s eyes. Like a butterfly, she fluttered here and there. Life in the countryside was simple, it began with the tinkling of bells of the cows and cowherds taking them to the field. Evenings were filled with dust thrown up by the animals on their way back home. The idyllic beauty was embalming. It was free from the hustle and bustle of city life. It seemed to her that time had stopped moving, and like Buddha, she mused on the time past and time present and the time to come.

She and her cousin, on a wonderful and colourful evening, went to the farm with a thought to do some work. While walking along the boundary of the farm, they happened to come across a cluster of castor-oil trees. But they didn’t know anything about them. So, they plucked some seeds that tasted like cashew nuts. They savoured them to the fullest. Her cousin was a bit greedy, so he ate the seeds which they had kept for their other cousins. They went home with glee. They rejoiced that they had found something great in the clusters of trees.

To their surprise, things started turning topsy turvy. She had doo-doo, poop trips. Her cousin, on the other hand, started vomiting. After some time, it became more frequent. She had loose motions and he had horrible vomits. She felt like a swinging door coming and going back time and again. After a while, she felt like not coming out of the washroom.  He was flooding home with his vomit. Her cousin was losing his vigour. Next day, everybody had a great laugh at them when they talked about eating cashew nuts. She and her cousin had consumed a lot of castor seeds that led to indigestion. It churned and twisted their stomach.  They too had a hearty laugh the next day.

But she had learned a lesson not to eat just anything that comes into her hand, and especially not to give it to others.

- Total nr. of readings: 1,498 Copyright © The author [2020] All Rights Reserved. This story may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the author except for personal use.