There’s someone new in our backyard and it is a rambutan tree. It was brought to us as a gift by the man who does odd jobs around here. When it arrived, it had all of three leaves, or may be four. In the three or four months since, it has painstakingly grown a few more. Slow and steady wins the race seems to be the motto. After all the little one has a long way to go to grow to a full grown height of between twelve and twenty meters.

Ever since the tree has been planted I have had visions of looking through the window at a full grown tree with bunches of luscious red hairy fruits hanging on it. Perhaps birds will come by to feast on them. May be I’ll take some pictures. Do birds like rambutans? If so, which ones? It is all so exciting. I’ll have to ask Google for the answers.

But

The rambutan tree takes five long years before it bears its first fruit. Five years? Where we’d be in five years! Definitely not here. The matter is not even open for debate. We would definitely be moving and I wouldn’t get to see or taste a single fruit. Never mind though. If not for me, someone else will enjoy the view and the fruits some day. All the best to them.

Note: My title is all wrong. There is no way for me to know whether the plant will grow up to be a male tree (no fruits!), a female (how will it bear fruit with no male trees around?) or a hermaphrodite (Lucky!). But what the heck, I didn’t know that before starting to write the post. Plus it sounds cute. So the title stands 😉

© Shail Mohan 2020