Every Red Watermelon ain’t that sweet

At our homes, mostly it’s our moms who go to the market to buy all our daily necessities and groceries. Even in this lock-down period, groceries are still a necessity. We at-least need food to survive, it is the most basic need. All other luxury cravings like fast-foods, clubbing, travelling, partying, get-together, brunches, theater, etc. can be kept aside for a while.

The most difficult task is often assigned to the strongest person in the group. The same is the case at our home. The toughest person in our family (group) is none other than my Mom. In this lock-down, the most difficult task if any is to keep a foot out of our doors. This task is assigned to my Mom. Although we do not allow her to go out everyday, she steps out of the house once in a week but with full precaution and keeping in mind all the safety measures to stay away from this virus.

Yesterday, her eyes fell on a watermelon seller, in summers, what else is more satisfying and relaxing than a fresh plate of watermelon dices. She approached the seller, they bargained a little but there was no other option available and considering the other careless customers who seem to have forgotten each and every guideline of social distancing, my mom agreed to pay a bit extra and quickly came out of that place.

It was 10 p.m., the time when my mom gets a little breather after completing all her household chores. She just sat down on the sofa and I pleaded, “Mumma, Karingo Mor ne ” (which means, ‘Mom, please serve me dices of watermelon). We children are so lucky to have such a beautiful person in our life, our Mom. She instantly went to the kitchen and gave me plate full of watermelon dices. The look of that plate, cherished me up, my entire body was fully energized and my hands were tempting to grab dices of that juicy watermelon and chug them all at once with my bare hands. I quickly took a dice and I put it in my mouth, just to feel a real shock.

That Bright Red Velvety textured juicy watermelon literally had zero taste, saying, “it’s a little less sweet” would be a crime. It missed it’s entire essence i.e. taste and sweetness. So I had a thought, same thing applies to our friends, family and all other people that we meet. Just like we judge a watermelon by its color, we judge them by what they wear, how to look, their body-shape, their hair-style, etc. Trust me in this, I am no different in this, I do the same mistake a lot. We are often attracted towards people who look good, who wear good clothes and who speak in a sweet way. In the end we find out that this guy or this girl is not what she looks like, you fight a lot after some time and in the end you realize there was nothing much that you liked about him/her other than their physical appearance.

So is there a way to get out of this loop? Yes. In case of a watermelon, what we can do is before buying one, we can always ask the vendor to cut a piece out of it and try it, so that we are satisfied with the taste. In the same way, we should not just get attracted by people’s physical appearances, to know who they truly are, we must try to give them time, to know them, to know about their qualities, to know about their behavior, to know about their priorities. Giving them time is just like tasting a watermelon, we’ll get to know about their real sweetness.