Crouching Sayesha, disappointing dragon(fruit)

Remember when you were a kid and you saw an elephant for the first time?

WHOALA.

I was shaken to my very core.

Now I see elephants and go, "Ho hum..."

But even today, when I see something for the first time, my eyes pop out, and I turn into the kid that had stared at the elephant as it produced a medium-sized hill of errr... biogas fuel.

That's something that never really changes even when we're all grown up, does it? Though I've seen many people try to act all 'adult' and hide the mind-numbing excitement of seeing something cool for the first time, but deep inside, they're jumping with joy of the purest and most innocent kind.

I especially love to watch Mom and Dad when they're looking at something they have never seen before.

They never have a "We're too dignified to appear amazed at such inconsequential things." expression. Or a "So what?" or a "What's so cool about this?" or an "I've seen this before." expression.

And especially not the spirit-crushing "Aaj kal toh hamare India mein sab kuchh milta hai!" ("These days we get everything in our India!") which I get from a lot of people every time I take any gifts for them in my trip home.

My parents react to everything dil se.

And I am so thankful that it's in the genes.

So I took a dragonfruit along with me the last time I went to India.

After my initial excitement at the amazing appearance of the fruit had died down, I decided to share it with my parents. (I'm sure dragonfruits are available in some parts of India, but I knew my parents had never seen one.)

As I unpacked, I took it out of the plastic bag, and 'presented' it to them.

"So? Ever seen anything like this?" I grinned.

"WOW!" They gaped at it. "What IS this?"

"It's a fruit I got from Singapore. They call it 'dragonfruit'."

"Hmmm... it does look like a dragon..." They took turns to inspect it closely.

Mom kept it in the living room in a bowl, and everyone who came to visit us looked at it in utter amazement. Mom and Dad loved the attention. I felt like I had a second sibling.

After a while though, curiosity got the better of them.

"Shall we open it to see how it looks on the inside?" Mom asked.

"But the outer covering is so beautiful." Dad said.

"But maybe the inside is even better! How does the inside look, beta?" Mom asked.

"Errr... I dunno, never seen a cut dragonfruit..." I replied.

"Hmmm... Okay, let's wait a few more days."

In a few days, the fruit started showing slight signs of drying up.

"We have to see the inside before it dries up. We'll cut it this evening." She declared.

Whoa, date and time fixed.

That evening, in a ceremonial fashion, Mom took her sharpest knife and hacked the dragonfruit into two, as Dad and I looked on.

Heavy silence from my family.

It certainly did not live up to their expectations.

Mom stared at it for a while, and then slowly said in a disappointed tone, "It's black & white..."

"Well, it's not a TV, Mom. It's a fruit. What, you thought it would be dark pink on the inside too?" I said. Actually, I was angry at the damn fruit. I was disappointed that the fruit had disappointed my parents.

"Well, I thought it would have some other colour... but it's black & white..." She looked quite desolate.

"Err... yeah..."

"Oh no! It was so much nicer earlier!! Why did you ask me to cut it open??" She asked.

"Huh?? I asked you to cut it open???? You couldn't wait to cut it open, Mom!" I protested.

She completely ignored my words.

"Okay, now what do we do with this?" Suddenly it had become a 'this' from that 'beautiful dark pink fruit that our daughter got from Singapore'. Sheesh.

"Uhh... eat it, I guess?" I took a shot in the dark.

"Hmmm.... eat it... how does it taste?"

"I dunno."

She cut a small piece and offered it to my Dad.

"Try it and tell me if it's nice?"

"Why am I always the guinea pig?" Dad protested.

"Arre, try it na!" Mom insisted.

Dad tried a piece. The expression on his face said it all.

"Say something na..." Mom urged.

"Actually... it kind of... has... errr.. no taste..." He said.

"Oh my God! It must taste horrible. Did you see his face?? And there was only one of it. Okay, whose bright idea was it to cut it??"

"Yours, Mom!"

"Now what do we do?" Dad asked. I believe that if he'd had his way, he'd have glued the two pieces back.

"Hmmm... we gotta mix it with something. Something that has... err... you know... taste! " She started to go through the stuff in the fridge.

"Oh I know! Let's make strawberry-dragonfruit milkshake!" She said.

"Strawberry-dragonfruit milkshake?? Errr... are you sure, Mom?" I asked.

"Arre, your Dad said the fruit is tasteless, na? So the milkshake will taste only of strawberry. But maybe the dragonfruit thing will give the milkshake a nice flavour or something."

Whrrrrrrrrrrrrr.... went the blender and in a few minutes, it was done.

I stared at the glass of pink liquid with black and white dots all over.

She held up a glass in front of Dad's face.

"No! I'm not going first this time." He said.

Then she looked at me.

"No way!" I said.

So she gave up and tried it herself.

Stony silence and expressionless face for a few seconds.

"Now the strawberry milkshake is ruined. Whose brilliant idea was it to add the dragonfruit?" She demanded.

Dad and I looked at each other in utter amazement.

"This tastes absolutely horrible." She shook her head in disapproval. "Your dragonfruit thing is no good."

That was it, man. I vowed never to take any cool-looking stuff home again, unless I had tried it myself.

I'm meeting them soon. Any ideas on what I can take for them this time?

Preferably something they've never seen before. ;)