Magic seeds

The two huge Mahogany trees in front of my house has been shedding its leaves since the past couple of days . The entire pathway is strewn with red, yellow and brown leaves.The leafy carpet looks beautiful and as I tread on those it continues to rain leaves on me . I enjoy the sweeping chore these days ..I glide around with my garden broom in the mornings. My now short hair refuses to stay tied and my unkempt tresses and the broom combine to probably give me the look of some Harry Porter witch . The wind is in a mischievous mood . It blows away the leaves I have just managed to rake to a corner and the trees in a hilarious split shed some more leaves for me to gather. If I didn't clear it up the surroundings would soon make  my house  look like an uninhabited and neglected place.
As I sweep I discover a 'manjaadi kuru' beneath the pile of leaves and then find some more as I progress to the end of the plot where the huge manjadi tree stood. 'Manjadikuru' is called the circassean seed but my lexicon says it is the 'magical red seed ' from the good luck tree, and I preferred that, to its more complicated other name. These red seeds are like brownie points for me and discovering them gives me the thrill of a  toddler who he has just been gifted a new toy.

Nature has such precious moments to offer us and so often we fail to notice them. Having spend all my childhood in the concrete jungle of a metro city, I was deprived of these little joys then. So today I feel privileged walking in my own front yard and picking these little treasures. There is also behind the fence a few shrubs of crab's eye , what we call 'kunjikuru' in malayalam. I had earlier seen those only in the Guruvayur temple where it is placed in a round brass ware. Little kids are made to gather those and play with them for a while. The belief is that doing thus makes the kids more hyper and mischievous. Now which parent would not want their kids to be more active? They wouldn't mind even if it made the kids a little impish .

I wish I was a better writer or a good story teller. I could have weaved another myth related to these seeds, something for the next few generations to fancy and listen to with awe. At present the creativity in me is in want of stimulation but may be when I become a grandma I too will spin a tale of the Magic seeds.

 Magic exists. Who can doubt it, when there are rainbows and wildflowers,
 the music of the wind and the silence of the stars? 
Anyone who has loved has been touched by magic.
 It is such a simple and such an extraordinary part of the lives we live.