Bonding

These days, not only younger generation but older generation is also caught in the clutches of smart phones. Everybody spend more time in virtual world then in real world. My cousin who was only five years old was always busy playing video games like ‘Snake’ and ‘Angry birds’. His eyes were always fixed on the screen while taking his meals or drinking milk. Like my youngest family member, my grandmother was always busy on the phone. Whole day, she chatted with her friends, relatives and even next door neighbours. I had to wait for several minutes if I wanted to talk to her. Similarly, my aunt was always busy in dealing with business enquiries on phone. In her free time she preferred to listen to her favourite songs with the ears phones than conversing with family members. I desperately wanted my family members to break the shackles of digital world and came together to enjoy the beautiful moment’s life has given us.  

I saw the advertisement of Kissanpur on T.V. I ordered tomato seeds online and downloaded the ‘Tomato Growing Guide’ from Kissanpur website. I arouse the curiosity of my cousin by explaining him that Kissan tomato ketchup which he liked so much is made of tomatoes. Moreover, we would be growing those tomatoes in our house. He opened his mouth in amazement.

We together sowed the seeds in the moist soil and placed the container on the refrigerator. My cousin at regular intervals climbed on the chair to watch it. He was the first to notice the first sapling of tomato. He was so excited and happy. Now, he wanted his eyes fixed on the tomato plant while eating and drinking milk.

When all the saplings came out, I put the pot in sunlight as they now required sunshine for the whole day. I went out of the town for three days to attend the marriage of my close friend. When I came back, I was surprised to see my grandmother watering plants along with my cousin. They both were enjoying each other company and I too joined them.

The plants grew up to the height of 6-8 inches I put support to the plant by adding a stick around it. The tiny flowers of tomatoes were very beautiful and we loved to watch them blossom. The fruits appeared and their size increased. The colour of fruits started changing from green to red.

One day when I was in my office, my cousin was in his school and my grandmother was in temple attending a spiritual lecture on that day, devastating hailstorm came. I was feeling that our efforts to produce tomatoes would fail. The storm was so strong that it would destroy the tomatoes. When I came home, I rushed to check our tomato plants. I was quite surprised to see them swinging happily in cool breeze. My aunt came smilingly and told that she put a temporary shed to protect the tomatoes from hail storm.

On that night, all family members experienced the ‘Real Togetherness’. We sat near our tomato plants, watched them in full moon light. Red tomatoes were shining brightly. After that, my family started spending time with each other, watching stars, moon, clouds and tomato plants.

Thanks Kissanpur for bringing my family together! :)