Memories on Trees: Drumstick
It is really amazing, I never imagined I could write my memories about nine [yup, nine!] plants. Each plant has a special place in my heart, although I won’t say that about the Drumstick plant in a positive sense.
If you search the medicinal usage of the Drumstick plant, you will find they are countless. Name the disease and Drumstick seems to be holding a cure. That includes all from common fever to impotence.
There was a nice garden around our bungalow. Drumstick plant stood there close to the fence. As a young boy I climbed it. I stood on one branch while holding the upper one. It took less than a minute for the lower branch to break, not tolerating the weight of a young boy! As the lower branch broke, the upper to broke, it could not take my weight. [Just in case this is making you guess that I must have been overweight, the fact is otherwise. I was actually underweight for my age.]
Nobody should attempt to climb this plant, the wood of Drumstick plant is very soft and can’t take any weight. So I hit the ground with a thud, with bruises all over. The dispensary was only a few feet away.
And the problem was that my father, a doctor, was going to attend to my injuries. I leave the rest to your imagination; climbing the Drumstick tree was not a pleasant experience. Nor was facing my father with a failed adventure and bruises all over.
Who says Drumstick plant has numerous medicinal properties? Blah! ‘It is injurious to health!’ Ask me!!
Vivek S Patwardhan
[Pic courtesy internet]