Manjadikuru — The Red Specks of Beauty
A recent visit to my native place after three long years stirred wonderful memories that seldom resurfaced in the busy city life that I led. A serene village bounded by brown hills interspersed with green located in the southern most tip of India was where I spent almost all my vacations when I was a kid. As I walked towards my 50 year old house that was partly in ruins, I felt a pang of guilt for neglecting it for months. Lost in the life that I live now, I never found time to spare to visit what once had been my sole place of solace as I ran away from the city, seeking shelter in my cottage surrounded by trees, animals, birds and regularly visited by the gentle breeze that took away all my worries. I walked around the house on the fresh damp soil which was now strewn with weeds. The memory of helping my grandfather pluck the weeds around our home struck me as I walked through the knee-high grass. That’s when something red and shiny peeking out of the soil among the roots of the weeds caught my eye. I bent down, moved the soil out of my way with my fingers and finally gained access to the red speck of beauty that beckoned me. I picked up the red seed as memories gushed with tremendous force which rendered me motionless for five whole seconds. The manjadikuru stared at me from from palm. The sudden squawk of a parrot startled me and the manjadikuru slipped from my hand and fell back to the ground. As I picked it up, I noticed tinges of red here and there in the soil and I dug the manjadis out. Though my hand and nails were grubby, I had found five manjadikuru seeds. Then I found a pod that bore the seeds and that was enough to put a grin on my face. I was transported back to my childhood days for a minute.
If you collect thousand and one manjadikuru seeds with your own hands, you’ll find the man of your dreams, marry him and live happily ever after.
My grandmother’s voice boomed in my head. In front of her was an open old wooden box filled with the red seeds.
Did you find the man of your dreams?
I asked her pointing to the thousand and one manjadikurus in the wooden box. She smiled shyly as a blush crept up her cheeks and looked fondly at my grandfather who was dozing in his armchair.
Yes. I had found the man of my dreams.
We all say there is no “happily ever after”. But it is possible if you are willing to let go of the reality for one moment and believe in love blindly. Now back to reality again.
That day, I was determined to find the man of my dreams and I wanted to gather all the luck that I could. So I began collecting manjadikuru a.k.a.
Adenanthera pavonina which is its scientific name. I chose the reddest and the finest seeds because I wanted the finest man. As I think about it now, I should say that manjadikuru symbolises love. Love can happen between a man and a woman, two women, two men, between humans, between an animal and a human or between a book and a human……well, you get the gist of it, right?! If you like the red shiny coat of these seeds, then why not collect them? Trust me, they are worth it. Who knows if you manage to collect a thousand and one manjadikuru seeds, you might find what you love and nothing will do you apart. Even if you do not believe in all this mumbo- jumbo, you still can fall in love with these tiny red specks of beauty because as they say, love has no bounds.
I left the house with a platter full off manjadikuru, before promising myself that I’ll be back soon.
