'GOONDU'

I am sure that you will notice that the bunch of grapes in the above pictures is artificial. Right? The grapes might be plastic but the grape plant is real but it does not seem to be bearing fruits or flowering for that matter.

My mum told me that in olden days, some people who had problems begetting a child would adopt one with the hope that the particular child would be a 'goondu' (that's what my mum calls it) or something to attract a baby brother or sister for the parents. According to my mum, a few of her friends who adopted children later managed to get children using this method.

Using a similar theory, my mum tried hanging artifical green apples on the mini apple tree in our house and what do you know, the plant started to bear fruits. So, that is why you see the artificial grapes on the grapevine. I'll let you know if real grapes appear in the coming months.