The monsoon rain
started during November, 2014 – the initial rains were good. When the rain
poured non-stop for a fortnight destroyed vegetable cultivation. So it happened
to the kitchen garden of my neighbor too. The entire kitchen garden with
Amaranthus, Okra, cluster beans, beans and gourds could not withstand the water
stagnation. The papaya tree laden with fifty big papayas and fifty small
papayas could no more stand straight. The tree fall with the fruit bearing tip
broken. They were about to severe the entire tree, I happen to watch it over
from my windows and stopped it. I immediately rushed to the plant and asked to
find supportive poles and make the papaya plant straight as much as possible.
February 2015 gave me a
surprise with three tine buds from the node little lower than the broken edge
of the papaya tree. I was so excited and felt very much encouraged, as the tree
spoke me to EXCEL THE PAIN. It became
a non-voluntary action to see the plant every day in the morning. In the month
of April, buds turned into branches but there were heavy infestations of Papaya
Mealybug (Paracoccus marginatus). I asked them to remove the infected leaves
often. They turned frustrated asking me is the bug coming to your house. Then I
explained about the mealybug and could be controlled by manual removal of the
leaves, luckily there were no infestation of the bug in any of the other plants
nearby.
Now during July, I was amazed
to see the papaya tree with three branches, all the three loaded with papayas
big and small. What made me wonder is, “the
plant which could not bear the load of a single plant is now capable of its
triple bearing – from many nodes there are two, three or five papayas”.
What a lesson the MIRACLE papaya tree taught me - ENDURE THE PAIN, WORK HARD and BE
SINCERE, withstand all the odd situations and one day surprising results turn
all the agony into glee.