Tall, lean, good-looking,
and super efficient.......
I am not talking about Rhett Butler in 'Gone
with the Wind' here, just a lowly, common Garden rake.
The one with which you can rake piles of
leaves with just a flick of the wrist!
I had been searching for one since a
long time...
We had been returning from one of our equipment
installations in Calicut. Calicut (now
Kozhikode) being my birth-place holds many wonderful memories for me. My grandfather’s lush green paddy fields, the
heavenly aroma of Chakkavarti ( a jackfruit preserve) made so lovingly by my
grandmother over a wood-fire and the languid summer holidays that we spent
there. So is it any wonder that I try to prolong our visits to this place?
Hubby accepts my quirks, but once we are on
the road, he is loathe to stop.
We were
driving thru small towns with huge names. Try pronouncing Karimbanappalam, Payyambalam,
Thaliparamba,Pulimparamba, Muzhappilangad and Cheruthazham in one breath. That all the signboards are in
Malayalam don’t help either. And typical of NH 17, the towns are all clustered
around the highway. It was slow progress
and I was enjoying the sights of the little shops laden with tapioca, coconuts
and the Nendra-bananas.
“Stop! Stop!” I
yelled to hubby......something I would never dare to do unless it was an
emergency. He pulled over to the side of the road and turned to me with a
warning ‘this better be very important’ look. I jumped out of the car and ran
back to one of the shops. When you jump out a car with a MH number plate in one
of the small un-pronounceable villages in kerala, you sure do attract
attention. The shop keeper beamed at me
as he slightly nudged the tray of assorted imported chocolates in my
direction. But that wasn’t what I
wanted. What had caught my eye was a couple of dusty rakes hanging outside the
shop. He rolled his eyes and handed me
one of them. So light! I made sweeping movements with it, tossed it from one
hand to the other and nodded my head. How much? Rs 150 he replied gruffly. I
paid and turned around to see a gaggle of amused onlookers behind me. I ran
back to the car, tossed it into the boot and got in. Vivek was catching a
shut-eye and asked “What did you get”, probably expecting some nice goodies to munch on. “A
rake” I answered. He rolled his eyes and said “Hmmphffff” rather gruffly and started the car.
Well, back on the farm, the rake is a beauty. It really makes it easy to rake the leaves,
no more sore arms and tennis-elbows, and the compost pit is filling faster than
it did before.
 |
| The Raked |
 |
| and the UnRaked |
