അമ്മാമ പ്ലാവ് - Uncle jack fruit tree

On the right is a jack fruit tree. I feel very nostalgic when I see it. We call it AmmaamaPlaav (Uncle jackfruit tree). Earlier many houses in Kerala had Muthassiplaav or Muthassimaav (granny jack_fruit tree or granny mango tree) . That was a time when houses were in large compounds. Now the situation is changed. Land got fragmented and nobody is having huge trees on a small plot of land.

This tree was planted by my grand ( I would prefer to say great) uncle Late Ammassam Veettil Konthunni Nair, whom we used to call Ammaama. The tree got the name because of this.

It has been there for more than 50 years now. I have been seeing it for the past 45 years!. Just like me it has started getting age related problems. Some of its branches got broken in storm & rain during last few years.

You can say that it grew with me. I must say on its own. Nobody looked after it. It is situated just behind our ancestral house called Pathaayappura. Its fruit is not that good compared to other jackfruits. But it has some special place in our minds. It has been there on the way to our temple / tank. So it can not be missed. I remember when it was a very young tree. I also remember the first fruit on it. Above all I remember that underneath the tree an urn containing Ammaama’s ashes were buried.

Now the house and the compound all are abandoned .Nobody stays in Pathaayappura. We all grew up and moved to distant places. Poor Ammaamaplaav it could not move out.

By the way the photograph is Ali-Babbed from my nephew Srijith unni. :)

Read his blog: (He is a prolific blogger !)
http://srijithunni.blogspot.com