Passion fruit

Sometime ago, my mom went to the market. That's what aunties do, right? They go to the market. At the market, someone tried to sell her 'tau geh' and claimed that those are organic bean sprout. Mom being mom, she thought it was a good deal. So she paid for them and was happy with the transaction.

And then a wise person told her that those bean sprouts were precious and asked if my mom was willing to give 'em  up in exchange for a potted plant. Aunty being aunty, she thought to herself, hey, this is a good deal. I am getting a plant out of a beans and she got herself even better deal. She immediately agreed to it and she came home with the plant.

The above story is of course, fiction. I just made it up. What mattered most was that someone gave her a pot of 5 inches tall passion fruit plant and it got her occupied for months. She probably would have told me about how she got the plant. I just didn't pay enough attention to remember them.

So anyway, whenever she came to visit, she would show us photos of her plant growing. We would nod in approval when she says, Passion has grown 6 inches today.

She has a name for it, Passion. Great! We were, initially very happy that something were keeping her occupied.

At first it started of as a proud caretaker. Then it turned into an obsession. She would talk about how tall it has grown. Then she would call to tell us that it has sprout it's first fruit.

Soon, it was the only thing she talked about. At this rate, I was getting a little worried. She actually built a mini orchard for the passion fruits, wooden frames and all!!! Her sweat and blood for staying under the sun, ensuring they are safe from pesticides. She even wraps them up individually! She would talked about them as though it was part of her flesh and blood.

Suddenly, I had to share my mother with a plant! I can't help but to feel a gush of jealousy. I wondered if she talks about me to her friends the way she talks about the fruits. At one point, she snapped photos of each fruit and pointed to me, this one is going to ripe soon. This one will take about 2 more weeks. This one, last week, a bird tried to peck on it but I manage to shoo it away.

I didn't exaggerate when I said an orchard.

It will be an alarming state if she starts giving each fruit a name.

Meet Bob

This is Timmy

And yes, I have been drinking passion fruit juice for breakfast. She even bought a jug from IKEA and it had to be made of glass, especially for the passion fruit juice. Suggesting plastic jug is suicidal.