Mushrooms
growing
growing
What Mushrooms: - It sounded mystical raindrops falling softly all around me. It sounded mystical raindrops falling softly all around me. Softly, but distinctively. The sound came in different scales. When they fell on chapalis trees, the sounds were deep. On Assam Lata leaves, they were just a muttering. I stood in the cover of a Dewa tree in a dry chhara (stream) and watched the puddle gather at my feet.
I watched the rain laden black clouds pressing close to the forest top. They didn’t swirl. They just stayed there and poured. The coarse sands of the chhara soaked red.
Crossing across:- A long line of red ants was crossing across the chhara. Their corrugation over the undulating streambed. The ants were carrying small black balls. I picked up one ant and pinched away the black thing. It looked like an egg. But ant eggs are supposed to be white. Suddenly there was a visible urgency in the ants. They wanted to move fast. And they stumbled against each other.
Rain increased:- Slowly the rain increased. The sounds were now quite loud. The wind blew hard through the leaves, creating that murmur you only get in a forest. The wind picked up like a ghost’s traverse it seemed the forest had been bewitched by a spirit. The spirit angrily swirls in one place, shaking up the trees as if a cyclone was passing over with a great noise.
Big thuds:-Big thuds came from the forest. Chapalis fruits were falling. They are a kind of wild jackfruits, only smaller in size. Inside you will find the same kind of ‘koa’. They are a bit sour but very tasty. These wild jackfruits support a large group of wildlife in this forest. The langurs, macaques and monkeys thrive on them. Innumerable birds feed on the fruit.
