Robbing in-house assets, the mango thieves are back in town

It has been long since we had an adventure or did something crazy. The people who steal from others are called thieves but what would you call the people who try to steal from their home? It was Sunday and we were bored, watching movies and playing caroms. Oh! I forget to tell you about our caroms game mania. It was four years ago that I and some of the friends purchased a big carom board and that was kept for long in the store room. We recently discovered it and then started the round of competitions. Anup suggested playing cricket and we defined the rules for the game with one tip out, direct shot out, bounce to neighbor’s boundary out and four over’s match. We played two times with four of us one after the other. Finally, with a bouncer from Anup; the ball went to the roof top from where the return was impossible. We thus decided to drop the play.




In Ernakulam I haven’t seen children playing cricket or other outdoor games on the streets. Tripunithura has a cricket ground where Sreeshanth often comes to play cricket. He lives near to my home. Most of the Malayalam actors can be noticed in this locality who either come for a movie or for visiting temples. During the last Thripunithura ulsavam, Malayalam actor Jayasurya was seen sitting on a ground inside the temple. I also took couple of photos along with him.

It was evening and we started feeling hungry. Arun gave a suggestion to eat mangoes and he said that the tree behind our home has juicy mangoes. We decided that we would have mangoes to satisfy the stomach, at least for an hour.

The mango tree was high and we did not have a wooden stick to drop them, which was the safest way. There were two methods left; either to throw stones on the tree or to jump on the roof of the bathroom attached to the neighbor’s house. Throwing stones could result in hitting the glass window of the neighbor and thus we had to climb the roof.



(A video demonstrating the attempt of mango theft)

Arun is an expert in jumping and climbing… Seems he had some commando training in his dreams :). My friend Mayank used to jump the similar way on the balconies and roof tops like an athlete whenever our ball was stuck and we were unable to take it. Arun took a step back and with a jerk started running towards the roof. With a one meter gap between the wall and him, he jumped liked a Complan boy, placed his hands on roof top, swing his body “U shape” and he was on the roof, standing cool.

Though we were trying to grab mangoes from the mango tree within our premises but we were on the roof attached to neighbors. It was similar to a thief robbing his assets. Melvin referred us, ‘the mango thieves’.

Arun’s performance was interesting and thus I decided to try jumping. This was my first attempt and I was not sure to make it the “Arun way”. I ran and jumped to hold the roof but was unable to move forward due to the fear of falling down. Then Anup gave it a try and succeeded. He even placed his goggles as soon as he reached the top.

Hmm... It became a prestige issue for me, guy with gym body, six wala pack and no athlete… “thu hain tujhpar”(arnt you ashamed) said my andar wala Abhilash(the abhilash hidden deep inside me). Now I had to reach the top and at least get a mango. I folded my shirt, collected the confidence I had kept aside for the PMP exam and jumped like a tortoise and somehow managed to get on the roof. Hurray! “Abhi, now you are a star”



I waved my hands against the invisible audience and bowed to welcome their claps. I grabbed a mango from the tree. Putting your efforts for a mango make it taste more than anything in the world. The taste is still in my taste buds… “mmm…”