THE STORY OF LIFE, DEATH AND FINALLY HOPE

12th October,2014; A very special day in my life. A day so special that 150 years ago I was first introduced to this world and a day even more special that after 150 years of my birth I breathe my last on the same day.

15 decades ago, on this day, I came wriggling out of my mother's womb. Caressed by the gentle touch of the sun light and the occasional tinkles by the slight breeze, I grew up into a well built Banyan Tree. I had great friends who would bring me the tales from the world, and I had siblings who just like me would baby sit the birds.

As kids, we were taken care by the nature and now as adults, we take care of the nature. The dew drops would wake us up from our deep slumber and every night we used to be sung lullabies by the chirping moms. But today, when the world has started exploiting the nature and when every single second a bird vanishes from the globe, we took it as our duty to give a helping hand to these creatures.

Thus my life story is that of giving and taking from the environment. By the time I reached my centenary year, my progeny had grown in leaps and bounds. That day, I was anticipating a great party when suddenly something felt wrong. The birds came with the news of a huge cyclone hitting the land and the chief of the birds had ordered their immediate evacuation. 

I realized that the usually noisy human race was nowhere to be found and the waves kept slashing the shore as if in a hurry to run out of the sea. My inner conscious started scaring me with scary stories of the past where thousands of trees lost their lives during cyclones. My heart beat faster and my thoughts went wandering into the skies.

The kids were enjoying the heavy showers and the racing winds as they were left unaware of rain for many months. The adults were also having fun with the slashing bursts as the word cyclone is quite common to us and it usually meant heavy showers accompanied by decently faster winds. My mind started consoling me with these words but somewhere in the corners of heart, fear still held tight.

I perfectly knew that in case of emergency, the entire living race can find a shelter for themselves but for us. We had been and shall be the sole witness of the fury of the nature all naked standing on the same ground that we first looked at the sky from. My mind was still trying to console my heart when all my fears turned true.

It was already mid noon when I heard a shrill cry from my behind. The tiny guava tree in her twenties was badly hit on her head and she started falling to the ground. The cry had frightened all the youngsters and the jubilant cheers were replaced by frightened whispers. Much before we could mourn the death of the guava, a more terrific scream came vibrating through the winds.

This time it was a Neem tree crying for help and the cry itself had made things clear to me. However the optimistic trees tried doing the impossible and started stretching their hands in an attempt to hit the winds back. The sight had at that pint of time made me cry for our incapability to fight back but now it makes me furious when I realize that we, the strongest race on the world are the only species which could be attacked by even the tiniest creature on earth.

I was still wandering in my thoughts when the first blow came upon me. My head started reeling at the blow and much before I could come back, my backbone was split into two. I could see my children yelling in pain, trying to approach me but in vain. Soon the world turned upside down and all I could see was flicks of my community falling to the ground. Once in a while, a loud cry would be heard from somewhere and then peace would prevail awaiting another life to end its mission on the earth.

I lied upside down throughout the night crying my heart out for the withering race. In the morning I was awaken by the blabbering noise of the human community. My life was slowly being suck out of me and all I could do was to stare at the approaching crowd. In my almost unconscious sight, I could see a young lad walking towards me. The boy was holding a tiny plant in his hand which he started sowing beside me. He a had a tiny drop flowing out of his eye which flooded the entire pain out of my heart and made my last sigh, the most satisfied breath in my life. Thus, assured of the reincarnation of my race, I went into a deep slumber through which I would never come back.