I witnessed a fall yesterday morn
A peepal tree, tall and known
With it fell the nests of birds
A part of me too went in shades
The sapling of this tree I saw
Some thirty years ago or so
No one tended, watered it
Still it bore the cold and heat
My kitchen window opened to it
Some strewn flowers under it
Some tied threads on its bough
Slowly it grew tall and strong
Summer bathed the tree in brown
Spring has brought it back to green
Strong it grew like my own children
Who looked at it as a part their own
The sapling turned into plant, then tree
Strong it grew in mirth and glee
My mind got stuck amidst its branches
While looking through my kitchen window
Now it reached my windowsill
breeze and mirth it brought in through
Rustling leaves and chirping birds
played a concert in cool breeze
Birds chose to sit at top
And challenge cats from down beneath
Kittens played hide and seek
I watched all this from my kitchen window
Once a green turkey fell from above
struck on its branch and rose up along
hid amidst the branches safe
I couldn’t remove it, it was high!
Chirping birds gave morning song
to usher the day before the morn
as I wake up from my slumber
it dragged me towards my kitchen window
Steadfast it grew taller still
Decades three too passed by
My children’s growth has halted now
But my peepal tree grew taller still
Its leaves became my kitchen blind
and branches carried the broken sun
A moving picture on a canvas
Painted by the Artist Himself!
It became a part of us
Silent thoughts I shared with it
It grew taller day by day
Broader sprawled its branches still
The green turkey still clung to it
That too reached a mighty height
For fun I asked to those who came
If they could spot the green turkey
And then it happened yesterday
We came from outside unbothered
People gathered down my window
My peepal tree was laid to rest
Leaves and barks were shredded fast
Carried away with noise and care
Everything is done at last
Wounded soil mourned in vain
Bark by bark they cut it short
Stem was sawed with sharpened blade
One man sat on its branch with rope
To tie and pull its strength apart
No kittens came towards it
No birds’ wailing heard from it
Green turkey was down at last
I watched all these from my kitchen window
Peepal tree is no more now
Yielded to the blades of human mind!
It took less than three hours
To see the end of three decades
Harmless it was to all around
Shaded many from heat and rain
Home it was to many unknown
Orphaned became all they were!
Pounding and digging continued
Lest a sapling should grow there
to witness another three decades
to carry sun on its head !
Though I could hear the thudding sound
On the sand bed where it was found
Silence grew deep inside me,
Slowly I went to my kitchen window
Which is brighter than usual
Traffic flew far on the road
People gathered here and there.
I am no more hiding in
No prints on my kitchen window
Full sun shown bright and hot
But I wailed for my peepal tree.
to destroy is easy..
to create is hard..
to sustain is harder…
Subha Premchand
