Long, long ago there was a tree in the humble, barren adobe of an Indian. The tree had pale green leaves and a broad trunk, but no name. Initially, no one knew what to name it, as it was the first of its kind on the face of Mother Earth. The villagers saw it grow from a thin, short plant to a tall, strong tree. They crushed its bark and found them of no use. They smelt its leaves and found it no good for food. And so they decided it was not worth naming; except for one little boy who watered and patted her now and then.
The poor tree was conscious of all the humans’ deeds as she looked at the passersby with her kind eyes. But no one looked or observed her; rather they took her as a nothing. The tree felt very lonely, for she has no friends. She decided, “I will make them love me.”
The tree thought day and night for the next few days and one day came up with an idea. She turned all of her leaves to dark green, thinking that it will attract the attention of the locals. With hopeful eyes she waited the entire night. The moon shone over her lustrous leaves and she felt her beauty even in her veins. The next morning, everyone gathered around the tree, but only to look at her awfully. They commented that her end is near and disregarded her completely. Out of disappointment, the tree slowly shed tears along with her leaves. The grief was so intense that it turned the deep green leaves to pale lifeless yellow and sucked life out of them. And so, they shed one by one, disowning the tree itself. In that pile of withered leaves, the little boy and his friends jumped and played all day. The tree was happy; if not elders, at least the children loved her.
The little boy loved her more and more by the day. He talked to the tree and told her all sorts of stories that happen around the village. The tree and the boy soon became very good friends. But the tree still felt a dearth of acceptance among the villagers; she always wanted a family.
One day the tree explained her heartache to her friend. The boy after a lot of thought, brought up a new plan. He explained to the tree, how Prem, a villager liked his wife, Radhe’s new sari. He praised that its blue color highlighted against her fair skin. Taking a cue, the tree was as usual ready to experiment. After a few days, the tree started blooming with lovely velvet flowers. The little boy gathered everyone and showed them how beautiful they looked. She felt like a queen adorned with flowers on the top like a crown. Just as everyone turned to look at her flowers, a strong wind blew and all of them landed on the ground. The villagers sneered at her weakness and dismissed her altogether. The boy felt sorry for her.
Days and months passed, but the tree did not stop her pursuit. As her leaves grew thick and her branches big, she turned into a home for many birds and resting halt for humans. But the humans instead of thanking the tree for the shade, blamed her for the bird droppings. She soothed herself saying that at least the birds loved her.
One day she learnt from the little boy that food is a way to man’s heart. One fine day gave a produce of nice tasty berries. The tree felt, at last, she might be of some use to them. One by one the villagers ate all of them and said those berries couldn’t satiate their hunger. The tree was not disheartened. Instead of saving up her resources, she readily bore big, pulpy fruits for them. But unfortunately, one afternoon, while an old man jerked the tree to get a fruit, it accidently ended up on his head, injuring him. The tree took the blame for no mistake of hers. With this, she only believed her intentions of winning the love of the villagers is never going to happen.
Having lost all her hope, the tree even stopped trying. Then one day, just like all other days, she was observing the scene before her. Radhe was quarrelling with her mother-in-law over a trivial issue, they shouted at each other for a long time. And at the end of the day, it was clear that the chaos in the afternoon didn’t alter the love between Radhe and Prem. Prem empathized with her and soothed her mood. The tree thought of this for all day. And finally decided that no matter how perfect we are, others tend to dig out our flaws and how many ever such flaws they point out, we are still lovable to the others.
And having found herself perfect in every way, the tree started embracing the truth that once you stop worrying what the world will think of you, your life will become that much easier to live. Decidedly, she bared all her leaves for a few months, blossomed for another few months, carried juicy fruits later and changed the colors of her leaves now and then. And that’s how the seasons arrived and changed as per the tree’s wish.
In an early morning, as if it couldn’t get any better, the old tree saw small shoots all around it.
