This is a beautiful simple story from the early 80's when I was a child. Those days I lived in a place called Thanjavur in Tamil nadu with my parents and we had a fairly big house, with a lot of space to play and even grow trees! One such tree which grew in our garden, was a papaya tree! This story is about that tree!!The Papaya tree had grown well and was fetching us fruits almost everyday, and hence the fruit was available almost round the year, at our place. We would eat some and give some to our friends and relatives.

One day when I was at home, the door bell rung, and when I opened the door, I found a short very old lady, mostly in her 90'sholding a stick in her hand with a child like smile on her face! And then she asked me for some food, as she was hungry!!

At first I was a little scared seeing her, but quickly I gathered some courage and went into my house looking for something that I could give her. But then all I could find there was a papaya fruit!

I cut the yellowish fruit and gave it to the hungry old women who had visited our home. She seemed to be enjoying the fruit to the fullest! She asked for more and had a stomach full!! It was a wonderful sight to watch, and then she left.

After a few days, she again came back, and this time she did not ask for food, but she asked me for a papaya in a very cute and musical tone! Just like an infant! And I was very happy to give the fruit to her.

This continued for a while, maybe for more then a couple of years or so, and each time she came, she would ask me, only for the papaya fruit and I would happily give it to her!

Today, after almost 35 years, I live in Bangalore and there is no papaya tree in and around my home and yet, the house is always full with papaya fruits! And I don't even buy them!! My wife buys them and #keeps it, even though she does not eat Papayas!!!

Initially, I used to wonder about this strange event, until, I realised and remembered the contributions made to the old women and her lovely smile, when I was a child!

And today I was 'only reaping, what I had sowed' !! And it gives me immense pleasure to share it with everyone.

So, let's make sure, we sow the right seeds or perform the right actions, so that we can continue smiling, even when the time comes to 'reap what we sowed'!

                    www.aguidetoinnerjoy.com