English is a very interesting language. There are words with letters in it that don’t make themselves heard. They just add length and complexities but without them the word itself is misspelt. Then there are words, that individually meaning something, but collectively with other words say a lot different. They call it idioms.
‘Cherry picking' literally
and literarrily are different; so is ‘apple
picking’. Cherry picking literally means picking cherries and literarrily; it means
one’s act of choosing from amongst many
available options. Apple picking, on the other hand literally means plucking (picking)
apples from the tree and as one of the
newly coined idioms, refers to theft of ‘Apple’ devices mostly by snatching.
Recently, I went apple picking, literally of course.
Apple picking is an annual ritual that many farms organise
in the USA. They allow visitors to pick as many apples as they can and carry it
home; naturally on payment. The amount payable is not calculated based on the number
or weight of apples picked, but on the number of people in the group plucking apples
and the bag they ‘have to' choose. More the number of people in the group, bigger
the bag that has to be bought; and more apples that can be carried home.
People, come for apple picking tours, essentially not for getting
apples cheaper than the market but to experience the walk through the apple orchard
and plucking apples of their choice right from the trees with their very own hands.
The bag is more, a means to carry memories home than apples. We too went for
the experience.
At the farm, there were counters that sold tickets and bags. We stood in the queue and when our turn came, paid the amount, got our family bag and reached the orchard. There was a person who told us how apples should be picked and also showed us the different varieties of apples that could be plucked that day. I was more keen on practice and less inclined to be preached to! Without wasting any time, I wanted to be there in the orchard, picking.
Once inside, I couldn’t believe my eyes. Rows after rows and rows after rows of apple
trees stood fully laden with apples ready to be picked. Apples of various shades of red, bright golden
yellow and lavish green; apples and apples, I had never seen so many different
types of apples together. I stood overwhelmed by the sheer numbers.
It's then I noticed that there were many apples lying on the
floor, many of them with clear signs of having been bitten off. Since visitors
are allowed to taste and eat as many as they can, I saw people picking tasting
and dropping. Possibly one need not eat the whole apple to taste it! What a colossal
waste? I said to myself.
Having paid a tidy sum at the counter, my mind focused on
making the best out of my investment. Walking around the orchard and feasting
with my eyes was the experience that I had come for, but with the bag in hand, the
money having been paid, the aim somehow seemed to have silently meandered off from
its original course. I became focused on filling my bag with the best possible
apples in the world.
The weather was beautiful, bright and sunny. The cold wasn’t
biting any more. I had two choices. I
could walk through the entire orchard once to decide on what I should pick or without
wasting time, I could start plucking
from where I stood, proceed gradually picking one or two from each variety
eventually filling my bag by the end of the walk. The very conscientious person,
I often think I am, I decided to start picking from where I stood. I was
determined to pick just about one or two from each variety, cover the entire
garden and then if need be, get back to filling the bag. Fair deal or so I
thought!
The story actually starts here at this point. It is here
that apple picking turned cherry picking!
The first tree was very easy, just two apples picked, one to
taste and eat. Every tree looked inviting and each apple tempting. But then with
so many trees to choose from and each tree with so many apples to select from, it
was cherry picking at its best or worst! With few varieties still unvisited,
our bag became full. Unlike many who dumped, what was already picked, here and there, only to resume plucking more, we, conscious of wastage, decided to stop. There
were a few who had stuffed their bags with apples but soon either apples spilled out rolling all over or their bags gave way. Either way, they couldn’t carry what
they intended to. Since walking around with
a heavy bag of apples was the last thing we wanted to do, we left the orchard.
Wanting to know more about the tradition of apple picking, I
came back home and looked up for details. As I read through various texts, words of the person who told us how to go
about apple picking became clearer, louder and more meaningful. “Redder the sweeter”
and “farther from the trunk riper the fruit”, he had said. “Shake the tree
while plucking and spoil the yield next year” he cautioned us. “Don’t hold the
apple with the thumb and fingers and press the fruit to see if it’s ripe but
cup it in the palm and feel if it’s firm. Give it a slight lift and gentle
twist if it’s ripe it will come to you easy”, he told us the secret of picking.
“Once in hand, don’t drop it in the bag but place it gently, one over the other
so that it doesn’t get damaged” he had advised.
Reflecting on what I had done that day, I realised that it
was profound lessons in life that, I had experienced. The experience of walking
in an apple orchard was paid for, but the lessons for life came from reflections
in solitude.
Life is actually like a walk in the apple orchard. There is
enough apples for everyone to pick and the orchard is large enough for a
leisurely stroll for all of us. Once the bag is full, we will have to leave the
orchard. If we don’t, then what we had picked up as coveted soon becomes a burden.
We have just one life and it is we, who decide which all varieties of apples we
need to pick and fill our bags with.
In our exuberance of having found ourselves in the orchard and
the greed to bag all of it or most of it at once, we forget two cardinal
truths. First, the bag is just one and it has finite capacity to hold. Second,
the orchard is vast and with greater pickings as we walk along. Yet, what we often do is different. To
maximize our pickings, we greedily push our hands deep into the tree and not only
hurt ourselves but break branches and even unripe ones. Shaking the tree to get
the fruit we want, we damage the tree for times to come and also drop many
fruits to the floor rendering it unfit for consumption. To be sure that we are
getting the right apple, we press it between our fingers injuring it
permanently and then having broken it from the tree we drop it into the bag rather
than carefully placing it only to realize later that the apple we gathered have
been damaged by us. Rather than gratefully cupping what we get, we are mostly judgemental
and having got it carelessly toss it away as yet another trophy bothering
little about its utility later. Wanting more
out of everything, we try stuffing our bags, little realising that we could end up losing.
The apples I picked that day is long gone but the lessons I learned,
has gone deep within me. For what is left of my life, I shall just walk in the orchard
of life, absorbing all that colour of daily life, the aroma of goodness, savour
the taste of love and not greedily stuff myself for a later day.
May be, you too can take a look at your bag, decide to keep it away for a while and just take a stroll in the garden of life.
