Story # 6. A Snake, Three Mangoes and my Favorite Jamoon tree.
By George Nandan (2012)

Just to give you a backdrop to this true story. I will tell you a little about my first Hero, my Dad. Dad is a book all by himself. President Obama wrote a book “Dreams from my Father.” I believe every father could be a subject including mine. Many people have disagreed with my thinking that Dads are crucial to a child’s upbringing.

"Imagine a world without Love. Now Imagine a family without love! Not good for the human soul."

George Nandan

As a boy growing up, I observed a lot of things from the grown up males around me. They simply were not taught how to express their love and appreciation for the ones closest to them. From a young Boy, I took the time to go against the grain of the times; and chose not to join with my friends to smoke and consume alcohol. Just to prove that I am a man or what we call in Canal (Force Ripe…lol..)

Coming back to my Dad, he was in many ways unconventional. Our land in Canal # 2 for the most part is swamp. Dad used a system of drainage that revolutionized the intervals of swamps and made them into crop producing land still used to this day. Folks may even recall him making a raft from Etay Palm trees to transport his “Ton Wood” in the Conservancy; with our two bulls.  But that’s another story for another day. He used the same to make a bridge for “Back Line” also. Still another story for another day.

Jamoon trees were the norm all over our land in those days. Dad took his axe and went to work on all of them. He literally dug them out of from the stump to make room for his Sugar Cane crops. Now what I remember from my Boyhood days is when I reached the age of eight years, my life became as busy as you can get.

 Take a look at the figure below, these were my main tasks. You will see that each time I got the opportunity to develop my talents; it was like I won the Lottery especially listening to the following bands from my boyhood days...

		Sohani Combo
		Merrytones
		De Originals
		Dil Bahar
		Melody Makers among others...

I have decided to write this because like any Father, I am struggling to maintain my connection to my college age son. Mostly because he is under the assumption that I would never understand the challenges facing Teens and Young People in general.

Well, permit me to make a statement here. In my line of work, I have spoken to quite a few young people who attempted to take their own life. They had one common denominator. They do not feel “CONNECTED and/or LOVED” by their families. I know I am supposed to keep this about my artistic journey. As you can see I am artistic and do have many hidden talents.

Anyway this is a Cat: 2, Item c) related story. After school (Kawall Primary), my immediate chore is to take our two bulls; Tarzan and Whitestar to graze in the swamps in the “Backdam”…lol. Now since dinner is not ready at that time 3:00 pm in the afternoon. I had to snack on fruits to keep me up until about 6:00 pm when I bring the bulls home. Cattle have to eat nonstop for about 3-4 hours before they are full. Then they would relax and chew their cud for another 3-4 hours.

At the time in Canal, some sort of fruit is always available to eat, from cashews, oranges, mangoes, sugar cane, pineapple, etc. This time around mangoes are in season. Mangoes are one of nature’s best kept secrets. Rich in anti-oxidants and electrolytes for the heart.

I put together my plastic, just in case of rain. I untied our two bulls, yoked them together on the “Juwat”,..lol.. and connected the slide; and started to proceed to the spot to let them do their thing. The ‘Bull and Slide” was a normal thing back then. On our way I stopped to picked three mangoes from our Spice mango three to snack on in our backyard. I chose the best three and continued my journey.

One of our bulls, I named Tarzan. He is very special. He was born and grew up with us, so I was very fond of him. More adventures with Tarzan in the future. By the way he hated my youngest sister Serena (Seerie) for good reason. She used to tease him and he would actually walk in the first floor looking for her to 'buut' her....lol. We finally reached their grazing spot at the end of our sugar cane field in the swamp. I untied the bulls and let them proceed to start their dinner while I did my usual. 

I left  my snack of mangoes at the bottom of my Favorite Jamoon tree; and climbed up with my plastic to my favorite limb. Now I would already have selected in my mind, the songs I would sing. I had about three hours to kill anyway, no Cell Phone, Texting, MySpace, IPod, Facebook, YouTube and Internet Mon…lol… So off I go…O Mere Mehebooba, mehebooba…mehebooba…(Oh My Love!) in English! Tuje jana hai.…etc..and then more etc…. In between I would reach out and select whatever juicy Jamoon I could get and snack on them. Being alone in the Backdam with every kinds of sound from the bushes, some pleasant and some was not my favorite. Too many jumbie stories Mon!

I was not hungry so I sang in intervals for about two and a half hours. A few rain sessions (Passing Clouds”…lol…But I was ready with my plastic to cover. I had about half an hour left to prepare my bulls to come home. I called on them to head back as I have trained them to obey my commands. They started their way grazing in my direction. I came down the tree and I sat on my slide; and started to snack on the first of my mangoes. A strange thing happened. As I was eating my second mango, I noticed the grass (Jewgrass) moving in a particular pattern. I sat facing on the Eastside of our land,  the trailer path where the slide is, was located on the West side of our property. It could only mean one thing…SNAKE! I was frightened but kept my cool because I thought he would just go by their merry way. Anyway I had my 22" cutlass ready for action. 

The chap had other plans, he was so barefaced that he kept coming closer. So I decided to get call it a day and meet up with my bulls. I proceeded to walk around the opposite direction where my Dad dug one of his drains. It is his main drain of his drainage system. This  drain ran in the middle of the land so as to not enrage the neighbors. Dad is a Master when he it comes to drainage and irrigation systems. As I started running at the edge of our middle drain to get past, I glanced down and saw him crawling on the ground. At the same time he lifted his head.That scared me to the point of leaping higher in the air. I screamed because of his size and he plunged into the drain and he came in the same direction as me and at the same time as I was cursing his mother, father and every cuss word I know. I ran as fast as I could. After some distance he was not around and probably decided I was not worth the trouble. Remember I was just ten years old at the time.

This got my bulls attention, and sensing I was in some sort of danger, they hurried to meet up with me. As I reached them, Tarzan gave me a funny look, took one swipe at my hand and knocked down my remaining third mango. He proceeded to eat it himself while still looking at me. It finally sunk in, Tarzan meant to tell me, "why are you so stupid? All the snake wanted was your mangoes; that’s why he was following you". I guess animals know how an animal would think. How am I to know?

For a split second I saw how  beautiful the colors of the snake was. It was a “Kamakari.” It had the typical orange, red, and black colors. This thing was beautiful and scary at the same time.  I would not have cared how beautiful it was, if it would have attacked me I would have chopped his head off. What I do know, this Dude has the reputation of being too brave especially the males.

Tarzan had compassion for me and bent his head to the ground and stooped his front shoulders forward. I actually witness him coming into this world. Yes, right at the Backdam. I trained Tarzan in the aspect of riding. I would ride him into the swamp land so I can avoid being scraped by the scrubs.  That is his signal for me to climb on his back and he would bring me to the slide and we can come home.

There is a tropical fly called “Cowfly” that is so annoying to cattle and the darker it gets the more they come out. They can pester the bulls ruthlessly. So Tarzan and Whitestar were ready to get hitched and start their sprint home. Yes they would sprint to shake off the cowflies. With me on the slide.

As we approached the slide, I on Tarzan’s back he did something I would never forget. He started snorting loudly and stomping his feet on the ground. Later I realized that was his way of communicating that I am not by myself and if any animal want a piece of my mango or me for that matter; they would have to come through him. I also noticed Whitestar pacing ahead attentive and looking at every movement. These are my two Boyhood pals plus Rover my dog who refused to come with me that day. Animals are precious and care for you if you care for them.

End.

Thank you for taking the time to read another one of my stories.