An inconsolable 10-year- old boy is crying out aloud and in pain over the thoughtlessness and ruthlessness with which a beautiful Gulmohar tree in full bloom outside his house is being ‘pruned’. The overbearing neighbour, who claims that it is too close to her house and quite a ‘growing nuisance’, has decided to do away with the entire canopy.
Suddenly he cries out aloud: ‘Mama, look, they’ve destroyed the crow’s nest also. And the branches have fallen on my little garden and destroyed it!’ The neighbour looks on irritatedly at the wailing boy and gives him some ‘adult gyaan’ about how trees and gardens would keep growing.
The child is unstoppable now. He runs forward to take off the branches that have crushed his potato and tulsi plants. He looks upward at the tree and wails again. The unmoved neighbour just asks him to move out of the way so the next branch doesn’t fall right on his little head.
He runs back and says: ‘Mama, please tell her to stop.’ But the mother looks on with practised, sterile stoicism.
Dear little one, this is the legacy we’re handing over to you – a legacy of mute acceptance of injustice and insensitivity to all things green, all around us.
ashamathw@gmail.com
