Can you stop life?

Once a broad shady road it was. The outer ring road. Pipal and Neem trees on the sides, the dividers with flowery shrubs like bougainvillea and madhumalti. It was a lovely drive. Red signals were a pain but they gave time to admire the beauty of these age-old wonders.

Then they thought of development. Building some more flyovers and subways and some high capacity bus service too. They ruthlessly chopped the trees, some of which were older than their own existence. The once shady beauty was now only lifeless brown trunk fenced by a tin enclosure. Each time one passed the heart went out to these trees. The question lurking large was, is this the price for development?

Then one fine March morning, as I passed the same road and what do we see? There are these tiny light green shoots, leaves, and saplings shooting out from the brown trunks. Life had sprung again. These tiny little things were shining, dancing with the wind and whispering their music in the spring breeze. As if they were shouting and saying who can stop life?

Shubhra, 17th March 2008, 2.30 pm