'Yellow Watermelons' by Ajit Chandrasekhar

 

 Yellow Watermelons 

by Ajit Chandrasekhar

 

Yellow watermelon with four servings on steel plates

 

Mahadev was a farmer. His farm was near Gopalpur on the Orrisa-Chatisgarh border. The nearest town was Rourkela which is about one hundred kms away. He had a family. His wife was Sharada, and he had two children, a son, Harish, and a daughter, Nisha. He grew vegetables, fruits and even some grain such as wheat and rice.

One year, the entire Orrisa State was faced with a severe drought. There was very little rain. Most of Mahadev’s crops failed, except a few watermelons which were saved. There was a severe water shortage and most people had very little to eat. Mahadev gave his watermelons to his neighbours, and as he was giving the last watermelon, his wife Sharada was very angry. ‘How can you give all the watermelons away. What about me and my children? You should have kept at least one watermelon for the family.’ Mahadev tried to explain to Sharada about the situation but still, she wouldn’t listen. ‘All the rest of my crop has failed, at least I can give a few watermelons to the people.’ He tried to calm down Sharada and he said. ‘The entire Orrisa State is reeling under a severe drought, and most people don’t have enough to eat, and you are making such a fuss because you didn’t have a watermelon? We can at least eat well, live in a nice house, and our children have a good education, whereas many others don’t, so please be grateful.’ The rest of the year there was very poor rainfall.

In the beginning of November, the Met office had warned there would be a severe cyclonic storm striking the Orrisa coast near Balasore. The coast between Puri and Balasore would receive extremely heavy rain and very strong gale force winds. The interior areas would receive moderate rain. Mahadev got a message on his mobile that even Rourkela and Gopalpur would receive moderate rain. So he rushed to Rourkela on the bus to get the watermelon seeds, and he managed to get them.

Just before the cyclone hit, many places in interior Orissa had heavy rain. Mahadev planted a few vegetables and fruits including tomatoes, aubergines and watermelons, of course. While many coastal cities were flooded due to the cyclone, it didn’t cause much damage and there were no casualties. And everybody was glad to have the rain.

One wish Mahadev had was to grow yellow watermelons. He made many enquiries. Even went to Rourkela but couldn’t find the yellow watermelon seeds anywhere. He had an argument with the shopkeeper. Mahadev said, ‘In this large industrial city, you can’t get yellow watermelon seeds?’ Another shopkeeper had a variety of seeds of different fruits and vegetables. He had pink watermelon but no yellow watermelon. Mahadev made further enquiries, and even made searches for yellow watermelons online. It said yellow watermelons not available anywhere in Orissa. You will have to go to Kolkatta. Mahadev was really disappointed.

One morning, at the end of March, Mahadev saw in the newspaper, that there was an advertisement that you could get both pink and yellow watermelons in two places in Orissa. One place was in Rourkela, but it did not give the address. The second was in Bhuveneshwar railway station. Mahadev decided to go to Bhuvenehswar, even though it was a greater distance. He took his wife and two children, since the summer vacation had started. His son, Harish saw on a notice board of the Bhuveneshwar station: Orissa Tourism. Taxies and Buses available. Visit Konarak and Puri. But his father said 'No', because he had work to do on the farm.

They all went back home. The following Sunday, Mahadev and the family planted the yellow watermelon. It was raining lightly but they were happy.

Yellow watermelon with cut pieces in stemmed glass

In three months’ time, Mahadev and his family got the first yellow watermelon. The flavour was very different and it was outstanding.

The following year, there was a bumper crop of watermelons. And Mahadev sold them to his neighbours and friends. Within a few years, Mahadev’s yellow watermelons were so popular that people enjoyed them greatly. It had a market not only Orrisa but were available in many other parts of the country.

Read the interview with the author of this story here.