-- ** -- ** -- AM I AUDIBLE -- ** -- ** --

"Am I audible" - She asked! before closing her eyes...

Time for candies !!!
I am not sure if kids these days enjoy the priceless candies of our times.  Weekends are busy for two parties, kids in the community & road side flea vendors.

Old man, holding a hand full of cotton candies in his left, employing his right to do the advertisement. Walking around the ground & tempting kids to cry for a purchase ? 

Yeah, that's what he is good at.  

I made a purchase that day... Waaaaaaah !!!

Not more than a couple of decades ago, it was one such day for me, holding half done cotton candy by one hand and a Gilli stick on the other, I was all set to start the game. When my friends were about to shout 'GO', darkening clouds & raindrops paused my action. It was an unexpected rain that played spoilsport. 

The so-called mango showers arrived to spoil our street games that evening.

“Yeiiiii Thambi……….” - The loud voice of my mom alerts me to get into the house. 

Indeed, it was an alert for the other poor fellows playing with me as well to run into their respective houses. Starting to run, we all ended up towards the lower end of the street, finding a roof for ourselves to finish off the rest of half-wet cotton candy.

Neighborhood aunties were busy fetching their clothes from outside before they are wet and people from the streets had to hurry to shelter themselves to be wet-free. 

Even dogs, the street rulers had to park themselves behind doors and under stairs. Almost everyone gave way for rain to hit the ground. 

Amidst all these scenes, something grabbed my attention.

There was one family without shelter, restlessly flying around. Departing from the second floor of a nearby apartment to my left and landing again in the edges of newly constructed building to my right. These bunch of birds were not ready to settle down any time soon...

And underneath, I had to lower my eyes only to see the guava tree, that I loved the most being cut by few men.

I felt as if the world stopped at that moment by seeing our free selling vendor being destroyed away.

“Since the day I started walking, this tree was my go-to place. Be it any day of the year, I had a minute to water this tree. Each time my mom scolds, this tree opened her arms to console me. 

Because she was not just a tree!

No matter what, she never hurts me back.

No matter what, she never stopped to feed me with fruits.

No matter what, she doesn’t move away from me based on caste, color, creed or money.

No matter what, she always stayed healthy to bring me the birds that I loved.

How can I not be inspired ???

This tree was as strong as my dad in its appearance & was just like my mom in spreading her roots of love. Be it rain, flood or hurricane, this tree stood still.

But that day, I saw her fall in my own eyes. “She is no more” – eyes pumped and heart cried.

She was hurt, was shattered and was broken. In a few minutes, she was laid down onto the ground . It was an unusual scene for me!  I felt as if it was to be the burial of someone whom I loved so much. 

Years rolled by...

The place where she was dragged is still empty after 20 years, just like the emptiness that gets created on someone’s loss.

Dear readers, our world is a great place to live!

I call it as Our world because it's not meant for any single creature. It’s a common asset for every single life that walks and limps, that swims and tumbles, that flies and flutters, that crawls, jumps, slides & for the creatures that don't move, meant for Trees as well. 

Somewhere I believe that trees are the only creatures that continued to obey God, not moving away from the place that God gave them. That’s the only reason, God has given trees the great privilege and duty of saving the rest of creatures in this world.

Trees give us space to breath and give us a great lesson, “Never get moved away from what you see. The whole world may try to blow you away, but you stay strong and spread your roots of love. God will find a way to make you see heights”

All the creatures have a voice for themselves to speak, they find a way to fight back or to escape. Trees does not have a voice for themselves. Every tree leave a question behind to the deciding & ruling community of the world “Am I audible?” 

They expect their voices be heard, not to save their lives but to save ours. Because trees believe that this is our world. 

Save Trees ! Save future !!

pic credits - M. Menaga

Unspoken message heard! Leave your comments if something was audible !