“Since ACs or water coolers had not made their way into our homes, summer afternoons were spent lazing in the cool shade of a giant banyan tree and making picnic plans with friends.”
Nidhi Jamwal*
When was the last time I climbed a tree? Are there any big trees at all in my neighbourhood? The questions popped up in my head as I read a paragraph from a book — Mangifera Indica: A Biography of the Mango by Sopan Joshi, a journalist and an author.
Joshi writes: “Their faces brimmed with excitement as they took their chances against gravity, their arms spread out for balance, not in the steady manner of tightrope walkers but like bird chicks awkwardly experimenting with nascent wings. The joy of climbing trees, like that of eating mangoes, reveals our primal self… Evolution forged us in the trees. One part of us still lives up there. Trees call to ghosts of our pasts. In Hindi bhoot means the past and a ghost. We can leave our past, but our past doesn’t leave us.”
Indeed, the words brought back my childhood spent in Jyotipuram, a hill town in Reasi district of J&K. I grew up climbing banyan, mulberry and guava trees. It was child’s play, literally and figuratively.
Reading Joshi about climbing mango trees in the orchards of Rataul in Uttar Pradesh vividly recalled the marketplace in Jyotipuram with its dozen shops, the Ramlila Ground and cricket matches on Sunday mornings.
Besides the excitement of the parades and other social and cultural events held at the Ramlila Ground, was the ginormous banyan tree. Its hanging roots offered the perfect hiding place during a hide-and-seek game, and its branches, like welcoming widespread arms, invited us to scramble up and find the best spots to perch on them.
Since air conditioners or water coolers had not made their way into our homes, summer afternoons were spent lazing in the cool shade of the giant tree and making picnic plans with friends — “I will bring alu-puri”, “I will bring lemon squash with lots of ice cubes”, “Please ask your mother to convince my mother to send me for the picnic…”.
A mulberry tree at the opposite end of the Ramlila Ground was as much a favourite with us. Summer and early monsoon months were when the tree was laden with berries and we gorged on freshly plucked, never-washed mulberries. They were purple, black,and green ones depending on their ripeness.
Time was of essence. If we reached late, the best of the berries of that day would already be plucked and eaten. Friends stuck out their purple tongues to tell you what we had just missed!
So, we rushed back home from school, threw down our school bags, bolted down lunch and raced to the mulberry tree as soon as our mother retired to her room for a nap.
No one really taught us how to climb a tree. We just did it. Standing under a large tree, looking up, we instinctively wanted to climb it. After a few falls and bruised knees and elbows, sometimes a bumpy forehead, we managed to make friends with the tree that happily allowed us to swing from the branches. All the children in our hilltown climbed trees.
Reading Mangifera Indica: A Biography of the Mango, brought home to me about the many many years in between that I have not climbed a tree, gorged on biju or seed-grown mangoes that fit so snugly in our palms and that were sucked dry of their last drop of sweet goodness.
The other thrill of trees and climbing them were invariably associated with them. At least there were stories of ghosts and flesh-eating bhoot-pishach (demons) inhabiting the banyan tree. So a Shivling along with an iron trishul was placed under our banyan tree to make it a ‘safe’ zone.
We did not know it then, but now we know that there are a number of physical and therapeutic benefits of climbing trees. Tree climbing is making a comeback and recreational tree climbing (that we did as children) is gaining popularity as a form of organised outdoor activity.
In April 2000, Tree Climbing Japan, a non-profit established the first tree-climbing school in Japan. It has programmes for tree and forest appreciation, preservation, and environmental education. Tree-climbing-based rehabilitation (TreeHab) and tree-assisted-therapy (Tree Therapy) programmes enable disabled persons and people of all ages to climb trees.
Researchers in the Department of Psychology at the University of North Florida conducted a study and reported that climbing a tree and balancing on a beam can dramatically improve cognitive skills.
Another study published in Urban Forestry & Urban Greening compared the physiological and psychological effects of climbing a live tree in a forest with those found after climbing a concrete tower of the same height. Physiological test results indicated that climbers’ bodies were more relaxed after tree climbing than after tower climbing. Psychological results indicated greater vitality, and reduced tension, confusion, and fatigue while tree climbing.
Is that why we were happier as children? Was it because we had plenty of trees to climb and our hands knew how to do a lot more than just negotiate keypads on our laptops or swipe left on our phone screens?
I need to find out if my hands still have the skill to climb trees. I am off to find a tree in my neighbourhood to climb. And I will take my children along. You should too.
*Nidhi Jamwal is a Mumbai-based journalist who writes on climate, environment, and rural issues. Follow her on X @JamwalNidhi
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The post Branching out in my childhood first appeared on Kashmir Times (Since 1954): Multi-media web news platform..
The post Branching out in my childhood appeared first on Kashmir Times (Since 1954): Multi-media web news platform..