The rain tree : Uses of the fruit

The best view from outside of my window is the hugh canopy of a raintree. This is IMHO one of the best trees to be found in Bangalore.
They are shady, spread on the top as much as spread below the ground (I always visualise this tree as having roots on top and below !) and very efficient in coverage. Not sure if people have noticed, but, there is almost a "cap" like quality in the foliage. There is almost ZERO foliage that do not receive sunlight !!!

As a kid, we used to collect the fruits of this tree when ripe. They are black / dark brown, the size of a small drumstick and slightly flat. Each fruit has about a dozen seed / bean almost like a giant sized bean.

We would strip the edges of the fruit, remove the seeds and then pulverize the fruit while adding some oil (typically the cheapest oil - used to be the oil that my mother used to ask me to throw out post a couple of fry-ups) and then make balls.

When let to dry, these balls were very hard and would substitute for an "expensive" cork ball during our summer vacation.

The balls were rock-hard and were more akin to cannon balls / missiles !

Change in subject - I've been of the opinion that we should be able to use the pulp as a binding agent while preparing tarmac. The reason I say this is - it is excellent in stickiness and binding properties (In my childhood days - I'd be able to show a couple of shorts / shirts as proof). They are also very hardy on wear / tear. The fact that these would dry up quickly was the reason we'd use oil during the process of pulping. I'm sure the heat / oil in the current road laying process will help. More importantly, this fruit pulp used to bind even plastic waste and I'm sure we can certainly use this property today.....

I guess this is one more of my discoveries that will not see the light of a patent until I have more time for myself :-)