Hollow Neem Tree

‘We must get rid of it, it has gotten hollow from inside’, he said. ‘Father is thinking of selling the trunk which is still useful before it falls down on boundary wall or on some passers-by’, he added with a sense of urgency in his tone.

He was speaking about a Neem Tree which stood there at the entrance of our village house compound. This three which stared at our family and last 3 generations since as long as time started for us. This tree which saw new toddlers crawling around it, adolescents turning into youths, youths of this family migrating to cities for their new professions and time to time uniting only for celebration or mourning in the family.

They say, this tree didn’t grow continuously and normally like other trees. The family members and people have seen this tree growing with spurts of active expansion conceding with growth, prosperity and expansion of this family. But now it’s hollow.

This tree saw the raw truths about this family and around. It saw how the youths of this large spread house felt too full of themselves and boasted about their moustaches whenever barber came and sat under this tree to give them a shave.

It had its contributions in the celebrations of the family by providing them shelter under it and also providing members their tooth brushes every morning.

When this large spread house was too full to accommodate family members inside, it gave them night shelter beneath it. When Sun was burning in summer noon and house was too suffocating without electricity, it gave shelter beneath it. When in winter sun set early and it was too early to sleep for people, it gave them shelter to sit beneath it around burning ‘bonfire’ and provide them an opportunity to talk and gossip about village stories.

But now it’s too old to stand and provide anything useful, and turned itself into danger for walls and people from in and around the house. It must be got ridden of.

But what happens after that? Will there be any new life replacing it? How long would it take to for this young life to become useful? Would it survive that long? Who would protect it? And would it not be useful to plant a ‘more useful tree’ like Mango tree at the place of Neem Tree. After all who uses Neem’s young branches as tooth brush anymore? Suddenly all these questions become more useful and relevant.

But nobody thinks about those stares which this tree had over the 3 generations of this family. Would it not be preserved somewhere in this tree? Those stares must have turned into stories, and hidden themselves into some corner of main trunk of this tree. What happens to those stories? Should we let them go? Should we not search for those stories before this tree is uprooted and sold to someone for burning and saving them from cold for few days this winter, or hanged somewhere in the form of door.

Would these stories not be precious? Perhaps it can answer few unjust which happened in this family and generation, once these stories are taken out and narrated out loud, few memories will be cherished, few tears would be shed, and few hugs after long rivalry and misunderstanding could be assured.

Should we not try finding those stories?

Or perhaps the hope for more useful mangos in coming years from the new replacement tree is more promising, after all who reads old stories anyway.

Old stories are only for children and old people for helping them in their sleeps and melancholy memories.

There will be soon a new mango tree!!!

                                           

                                   ****              

The Palace of Illusions

This book was about retelling of the great epic Mahabharata from Draupadi’s viewpoint.

One is left with nostalgia and memories of stories which were narrated to us as a child. This makes no difference if you have neither read nor heard those stories but watched this epic through famous Indian TV serial.

You are left behind with an observation that the gigantic characters form this epic character, had humanly virtues and vices. They were all made of greatness and weaknesses, bright and dark facets of human existence.

But the vital point which stands out from this retelling and narration is, rationalising ones act in the frame of good and bad. Both Krishna (Good) and Duryodhna (Evil) were not purely accurate and inaccurate in their acts but they rationalized their acts and tried to fit them in frames of just and unjust.

Narration in this book was simple and free flowing. However, sometime you do feel that author could have made her narration more griping in few chapters.

There was an approach of innovative writing in the names of each chapters.

Most of the chapter were with introspective view point of Draupadi but there were points were it seemed that author intermingled her view points with protagonist’s narrations.   

In the starting chapters, the self-narration of Draupadi as not very beautiful queen in comparison to other queens, was perhaps one pivotal point in defining her persona. It also justified to a great extents, her decisions and acts throughout the narration of this epic.

By the time one nears the closing chapter of this book, it leaves you with curiosity to read or re-read the original epic and try to understand each characters from humanely viewpoints. One accentuating point of this book was to relook at the character and incidents of this great epic through normal human emotions and rationalizations.

We all end up finding little bit of us in every character of this epic and every character will look less divine and more human like in their acts and emotions.