Jamuns - purple deliciousness

 The huge jamun tree bordered our back yard and was on the boundary of the plot with the family that stayed behind our place. It's branches came up to the terrace and in summer were laden with fruit. We would wait impatiently for the green jamuns to turn purple so we could feast on them. Climbing the tree was a bit challenging as it grew a straight thick trunk till about 6 feet and then forked. So we would use the wooden ladder to climb up to the fork in the trunk and then climb our favourite branches. As the fruit ripened we sat on the branches and ate them.

There are always the tell-tale signs of having plucked and eaten jamuns. Purple tongues and finger tips!  But that never deterred us and we knew how to collaborate to bend the branches to pluck the best ones. 

Our jamun tree had plump juicy jamuns with their astringent taste that our house help Kunda* did not like much. She would bring us much smaller but sweeter jamuns from her part of the town wrapped in leaves. They were sweet but the joy of eating jamuns off the branches and competing with the birds to pluck the best ones was unparalleled.

I have no idea when this favourite summer berry acquired exotic fruit status!

Recently, searching for jamuns as the jamun season is short and once it rains they fall to the ground and often get bruises, I came across plastic boxes of jamuns in the super market, priced really high and neatly sealed and labelled. Known to help in controlling blood sugar, jamun extract and juice are also available in the market but I don't see any jamun trees around here. Neither do we hear the hullabaloo of children in the jamun branches savouring every bite.