Climbing trees

I remember,when I was young, the trees looked so big and I always wished to climb the larger trees. Tarzan was a role model for me then and I always fantasised about swinging from the branches and roots of trees.

There were a lot of trees then around the place we lived and we also had many trees in our compound . As children we played and climbed on some smaller mango guava and jackfruit trees at home but were not allowed on the bigger trees. My uncles could climb trees and during the season of blueberries (jaamun) they used to take me along with them on the bicycle to collect the fruit. They would climb up the tree and shake the branches and I would pick up and collect the jaamuns fallen on the ground in the bag. I was always in awe of their ability to climb the trees . 

Also when I went to my mother's village during summer or winter holidays, I found the children there climbing trees with such dexterity that I envied them for this. I particularly liked the ritual of getting the Tad (tal) fruit plucked, tamarind collected and the setting of the pot on the date palm to collect the juice. In the eyes of  the small boy that I was, these were the ultimate exciting things to do. Sometimes one of the farm hands would perch me up on the nearest branch of the big mango tree and I would sit there feeling so thrilled with life.

All these are now just faded memories. It's difficult to believe that I had spent those days. Even to me they seem to be stories of my past birth,how can I blame others. Nobody can relate to these stories in this era of TV shows of extreme adventure sports and daring stunts. Children now do not play those hide and seek games involving bringing leaves and flowers of plants and trees and climbing up trees or terraces. That is considered too risky and off course it is. But how simple it really looked then. And we seemed to have endless reservoir of energy to play those games. Now when I look down from highrise existence,I discover that the trees look smaller.

But I still cannot climb them .