The other plants that grew on Verdura also carried those memories, the good and the bad ones, the sad and the funny ones, as well as the painful and ugly ones. Most did not have many pleasant memories about Humans.

The flowers displayed the least impact of those memories, so much so that it seemed as though they did not remember. They did remember but they did not care. Even on Earth, the flowers cared only to bloom and blossom, what happened around them did not concern them. It did not matter where they were; sandy deserts, cold mountains or damp plains; the flowers would bloom. And on Verdura, they were glorious; larger and brighter and far more sweet-smelling than they had ever been on Earth.

However, the memories caused some curious behaviour in the vegetables. Most vegetables were relieved that they were no Humans about yet, seemed fascinated by the way Humans had kings and rulers. They found it funny and unimaginable, why would anyone want to rule and more importantly why would the others agree to be ruled. It was bizarre, they agreed.

Yet, the more they thought and spoke about it, the more their fascination grew. As time passed the fruits and vegetables decided to see if they could adopt that practice. The few that refused to do so were left in peace but for the rest, it led to funny arguments and loud discussions.

The brinjals decided they should rule, taking inspiration from childhood tales that brinjals were the king of vegetables. Further, they had spent all their time on Earth being hated by quite a few humans, so they deserved a chance to be king.

The strongest objection came from the pumpkins which cited the long history of ill-treatment in the hands of the humans. Pumpkins have been carved into fearsome faces and made into lanterns; a practice that had gained worldwide popularity and one which they did not appreciate. Why would anyone like it? It was horrible to be made to look ugly hence they now deserved some royal treatment.

The pumpkin family, consisting of gourds and squashes, supported the claim. They had a long list of grievances; ash gourds hung to ward off the evil eye, bitter gourds mostly disliked, cucumbers and pickles did not find much favour with the population despite being good for health, bottle gourds were gouged to make musical instruments, watermelons force to grow into weird shapes. The list was long, for each member of the large family had a complaint.

The green leafy family; made up of cabbages, cauliflower, cabbage, kale, garden cress, bok choy, elected the cabbage to be their spokesperson. The brussel sprouts and broccoli were the most hated vegetables on Earth and wanted to do nothing that reminded them of the Humans. The rest felt the cabbage could be king because one human, a famous writer, had wanted to talk 'of cabbages—and kings—.' Since none of the other vegetables could counter that claim to fame, the green leafy family was sure of being crowned.

The citrus fruits promptly countered the greens. Humans were known to compare misfortunes with lemons, a fact that turned most of them sour. As compensation, they demanded the right to be king. Not that their demand lasted long, for the lemons and limes and oranges and tangerines and mandarins and pomelos could not decide who among them could be king.

And then the berries spoke up.

"Strawberries and raspberries and blueberries?"

I nodded, getting caught up in his enthusiasm.

Pink strawberries, red raspberries, dark blackberries, maroon mulberries, tiny red lingonberries, yellow cloudberries, blue blueberries, red cranberries, green gooseberries, red goji berries and black elderberries. Small and brightly coloured, they made a pretty sight but were impossible to hear for they had squeaky voices and an irritating habit of speaking together at once. And they want a Berry Queen, though the reasons for that was lost when all of them shouted together.

The potatoes and yam dug in their feet while the garlic and onions raised a stink. The jackfruit bristled in anger, apples reddened with irritation, the peaches were flushed and plums darkened with displeasure. The mangoes puffed up in annoyance but the bananas softened their stand, they had no real intention of being a king.

As the days went by, the idea, which had been started as a joke on Humans, turned into a serious and angry discussion, as each group felt they had the right reasons and the best cause to be king of vegetables.

It was chaos.

The vegetables and fruits on the verge of punching each other, when loud laughter was heard, silencing the vegetables and fruits. Wordlessly they looked at each other and then around. When they could not see anyone apart from themselves, they starting wondering and guessing aloud. And that brought about another round of laughter.

The laughter scared them as they could not see who it could be. All stood in frightened silence, darting their eyes from side to side. It was when the wind whistled that they realised who was laughing. And were even more surprised when the wind spoke, "You, vegetablis and fructus are behaving abominably, fighting and arguing like cats and dogs.

For a few minutes, there was silence, till the brave pumpkin spoke up, "You are right and we are sorry that we were fighting but—"

She stopped, wrung her tiny hands and taking a deep breath, blurted out, "—who exactly are you? I mean, if you do not mind, could you please let us know? We think you are the wind, but we cannot see you and it is a little frightening to hear invisible beings talk. It brings up memories of Earth and those human voices; even though they could not be seen, we could hear them."

There was a softer laugh, one of kindness and understanding, and the wind answered, "Well, I am the wind but you are hearing the words of the trees. We are the voice of Verdura."

"Oh!"

The pumpkin's eyes and mouth turned as round as herself. Too confused to ask any further questions, she kept quiet. All knew of the wisdom of the trees and unwilling to appear stupid, none of the other vegetables or fruits spoke out.

The collective age and experience of the trees gave them a lot of knowledge. But then the trees were also wise. Understanding the silence, they continued, "We can also speak though we rarely chose to do so. So you might wonder as to what made us do so today. But if you think a bit, you can realise that it is because you are being foolish."

"Foolish?" a berry squeaked in indignation, a feeling echoed by several other berries.

"Yes, foolish. And today you have proved that you can be worse than the humans you think are disgusting. Their lives and lifestyle are different though their needs are the same, hence they need a king or a ruler to guide the rest of the people. You, on the other hand, do not need or want the same things, you need different soils and the quantity of air, water and sunlight also are different for each of you. This world has plenty of resources and each can share and live in peace. So is it necessary to fight like those Humans?"

All the vegetables and fruits turned pink with shame, even the cabbages had a streak of pink. They mumbled apologies and shuffled on their tiny feet.

The wind turned to a gentle breeze and the trees murmured, "We are here because Mother Nature and Father Time decided that we need a world of our own, one where we can live and grow in peace. There is no point if we follow the worst of the human traits, the desperate need to rule over their fellow members. But, if you want to just call one or more of you as a king or queen or someone with an equally silly title, you are welcome. Just remember, it is only a title and gives you no power. We will not allow that, under no circumstances will Verdura turn into another Earth?

My nephew interrupted, "But atta, if the vegetables were all friends, and were kings and queens just for fun, why was there a vegetable spy?"

"That is what the mystery is."

"But who was the spy?"

I gave up, there was no point trying to maintain suspense. "Well, the brinjals had caught a tiny pumpkin..."

"The pumpkins and brinjals were enemies?"

"No, the pumpkins and brinjals are friends, and Baingan Raja and Pumpkin Princess are best friends."

"So why would a pumpkin be a spy?"

"Exactly. And that is what worried them. Baingan Raja could not believe that any vegetablis or fructus could be a spy, they had nothing to hide from each other. But it worried him. The pumpkin they captured must not be a true pumpkin which meant trouble."

"Not a real pumpkin?" His eyes grew round, despite the sleep that threatened to take over.

"Yes, and to learn more about that, we have to travel back in time and to Earth. We have to find out what happened to Earth and Gautam, who would play a role in what is now happening.

And we will do that tomorrow, for now, it is way past your bedtime."

He nodded, too sleepy to protest. As I tucked him in, I could not help wondering too, how had Earth fared in all these years?