By Ravi Arulanantham, PhD ~

I like to share a story that will explain the nature of James and how much he liked and cared for his coworkers. Sometimes back in 1998-1999 time period I was working with James on some amendments to a policy document (SWRCB Resolution 92-49). One day he sent me a recommendation suggested by a staff member from another region and asked me to give my feedback on the 3-4 page suggested language. After reading the document, I simply wrote back to James saying that the content did not have any salt and lime juice to it. He called me the same day and asked what did I mean by “no salt and lime juice” (of course in the context of a State groundwater policy document). I told him that my grandmother used to say that if you did not add salt and lime juice to a curry and in the right proportion, the curry will not taste good and no one will eat it.

Several months had passed and one weekend we had a party at our house and James and Carole were among the invitees. James walked in the front door with a five pound bag of salt in one hand and holding a lime tree (in a five gallon size container) in the other hand and with his famous smile on his face. We planted the tree next to our deck and named the lime tree “The JGG Tree”.  Even today the JGG tree is  very healthy and bears abundant fruits each year for us to enjoy.

One bad winter, I wrapped the tree with my mother’s saree to protect from the frost. I used to send James regularly pictures of his tree with full of fruits and he enjoyed seeing them.

Recently a humming bird built a nest in the JGG tree and you can see the two young ones in the nest waiting for their mother to come and feed them.  Of course, We did not buy salt for our cooking for many months at our house as well.