It Begins From An Uprooted Tree

Sometimes a trigger gathers randomly distributed feelings, observational facts, and thoughts to form a piece of literature or an article or an analysis or a study...

Each of the following stories is written independently, so each of them can be read with no connection to one another.

STORY 1 - The Peepal Tree

Two weeks ago, I shifted to a new hostel in a different place, it hardly looks like a place nearer to our institute; it looked like a place, a few decades from past; not so developed and an unnoticed area. I paid attention to the ~200 years old, huge Peepal tree with reddish newborn leaves, stood elegantly around the corner of the four-way junction touching the tarring, Sreekaryam-Kulathoor road (അരശുമൂട്(arashumoodu) junction- arashu means Peepal tree); while I was waiting for the bus for the first time from there, around 12.30pm, 2nd June, 2016. I must say it grabbed my attention! Nature was preparing herself to welcome the monsoon. It was cloudy with howling wind; it looked like a ribbon gymnastics performance by the coconut palms. I'm afraid my vocabulary is inadequate to describe the windy leaves of Peepal tree; sometimes their rustling sounded like it was raining. They looked like quivering Japanese dance fans. Dry leaves were taken off the ground by the aggressive, cold wind.

Next day onward I reached the junction just before the little girl with a bag of blue stars got into her school bus. In the meantime, I wait for the bus, in front of a bakery, an old man with brown rimmed soda glass spectacles wearing sandal wood gopikkuri in his forehead would reach the junction in his cycle that had an old style knitted plastic box attached to it. I used to think he must've some breathing trouble of old age; as he always kept his mouth a bit opened, and looked through his spectacles with difficulty. He had a tiny, box-like store in the junction, in the shades of the Peepal tree, made of an asbestos sheet that was damaged over time. A partially broken desk was placed in front of it. He then would keep the cycle next to his store. Then he starts sweeping the desk with a small broom, then he cleans up a small radius around his store, and finally opens the store and places the bottles of carbonated water over the partially broken desk. I have never got an idea about what was inside the store... It was too small and congested. He always had an expression of possession for his store and the surroundings... even to the fallen dry Peepal leaves. I decided to go there once and to see the old store closely and to look into the past through his store... After opening the store, one or two more old men gathered there, and they start their customary conversation, like chattering birds in the first light. Very few customers visited there, most of them were the auto-rickshaw drivers from the rickshaw stand next to it. The next person is a middle aged lady, who sweeps the fallen Peepal tree leaves away from the road and surroundings, a middle-aged man in a shabby drivers uniform would be there accompanying her. He would throw away the dry leaves in baskets as she sweeps and accumulates them in a certain area. She used to sweep like slow motion scenes from movies. Maybe she never liked that job, I presumed. There was a hotel opposite to the bakery, it would start working from early morning,  it was crowded all the time. The kitchen was on the front side, a big room with glass windows. The noise of colliding glasses, metal plates were always heard from there.

That huge Peepal tree had plenty of rooms for epiphytes. It was heard that sometimes snakes were found from the tree. I have never seen any other birds except crows in it. Twigs were fallen down whenever the crows moved from one branch to another; the trail of summer!  Yesterday, June 17, was such a day. As usual, I looked up to the widespread branches and observed what they were doing. By then bus reached and I left to IISER.

On the same day, at night, during dinner I heard that the old, huge Peepal tree have been uprooted by heavy wind and rain in the afternoon. I hardly believed it, because I believed it can not deracinate in the near future. I recalled it's fresh, soft and  reddish leaves up there in the branches. I felt the junction had a penetrating void when I went back to the hostel at night. The old man's store was fully destructed. I wonder what he would do from next day onward? It could have been his routine since a long time... maybe a few decades or more than that. It was a part of his routine... It's a bit distressing to wake up in the morning realizing that one doesn't really have to get up that early as hiser life is changed within a night... The kitchen of the hotel was partially demolished. Window glasses were shattered into pieces. What the sweeping lady would do tomorrow? Probably she would choose a different job that she likes...

STORY 2- An Ill Planning

I was writing MatLab codes, one of my lab mates was sitting next to me singing some song and apparently studying. Unexpectedly it started raining around 4 pm, it had an unusual rhythm. It had intensive ups and downs. I went out and stood near a window watching the treetops, they were moving as if they were trying to escape from a tied chain, using all their strength. periodically heavy wind blown across me shattering the raindrops onto my face. I wondered about the weather. What kind of rain was that? Was there any cyclones nearer to our area, I doubted and decided to search for different kinds of rain behavior. Well, somehow  I forgot about it. Later during dinner, one of my batch mates told me, the huge Peepal tree in the junction, near to our hostel was deracinated. It was highly unlikely I thought. Because as far as I knew it was a healthy tree, it never seemed to be disturbed from its growth, it even had plenty of new leaves. Moreover, I didn't find the wind in the evening to be strong enough to uproot that huge tree. They were also not sure about if what they heard was true, at the end of our conversation we conjectured it could be some huge branch of it and needn't be the tree as a whole. Well, as the electricity went off I thought about going back to the hostel at 11 pm.

On the way back to the hostel a few passengers informed us that the road was blocked. I got down to a junction nearer to my hostel, one of our security was there accompanying me. As we were reaching the junction I saw the dark blue sky and moon clearly; the tree did really uproot! Hostel security was there awaiting us. He allowed me to stay there watching the re-establishment of transport system by fire and rescue service, a private initiative crane service and KSEB. After almost one hour I went to look at it's roots, I wanted to know how strong the basement was. It was disappointing to see it, volumetrically the soil content and the collection of gravel rocks, drainage slabs, and tarring were almost equal. Probably at some point the base became poor and that may be the reason for such an unexpected uprooting of a tree. One of the natives said a few weeks ago when the forest department visited there, they said: "this Peepal tree will last at least for the next 25 years". I still doubt that whether the wind was strong enough to uproot the tree if the tree had a strong base... Why was such a careless drainage construction done? I suppose constructions like road drainages are to be done with a well-written plan, especially when it is a junction, where the sight is often restricted by a huge tree. Despite the question of the strength of wind Vs uprooting, the basement of the fallen tree was more than enough to conclude how unscientific the construction plans were in that junction. We don't have to criticize the old generation for their ill planning, but we could strengthen our inspection and preparation for a monsoon by ensuring should anything be updated/ replaced or repaired, isn't it? 

PS: It would be the responsibility of each citizen to inform and insist the authority examine them.

STORY 3 - An Evolving Society

It was heard that the road was blocked since a Peepal tree had fallen across the road, in a junction. I had to get down, from the bus and had to walk to my hostel because of that. One of our security accompanied me till I reach the junction where our hostel security was waiting for me, around 11.15 pm. Within a few seconds, a KSRTC bus was slowly coming from where the tree was said to be fell down. I thought the path might've cleared. But as it came nearer to us, I realized that it was a victim of the disaster; its backside was completely crushed. Later it was known that the bus was parking beside the road with no passengers, hence, no one was injured.

I wanted to see the rescuing mission and I asked hostel security to allow me to stay there. As there were no one else in that trip to my hostel, he said 'yes' with no delay.

Two clips from the mission; ~12.30 am

The junction was fully visible as there was adequate lighting system. There were no unnecessary sounds, but the sound of the crane, the woodcutter, and the orders of the fire and rescue service officers. They were working from ~4 pm in the afternoon. And it was past 11 at night when I reached there, still everyone was literally energetic at what they did. A few were cutting down the trunk into pieces, a few others were tying it with the crane, and a few others directing the driver who was sitting in the crane. A couple of audiences were there like me. At some point, a few iiserians passed by pitying me for waiting for something to happen and saying nothing is going to work. Well, they had a prior idea about the end (well, it is highly subjective at which point of the mission we use the terminology 'end' regardless the objective analysis), despite what would happen; whereas I never was waiting for an end but to observe each and every event that the mission was going through. Literally things were going smoothly... Then I began to think about the electric wires. As the crane removed one piece of wood, a few people gathered near the electric wires and started pulling it from that wood piece. They were from KSEB, I mistook them for natives since they didn't wear their uniform. After almost half an hour, I heard a few people in some uniform talking in some north Indian language. I wondered, did non-Keralites start joining in Kerala govt. jobs, when we have plenty of unemployed youth! Well, they were from the crane service and the crane service was a private initiation (Why? Is our govt. in such a poverty?! can't even afford to buy a crane by their own? Well, that goes to how elaborated the plans are those our govt make and the ideas on privatization. Let us prefer not to go into that topic as we are discussing something else). 

Two of the KSEB workers on duty; ~12.30 am

There was a clear division of labor and everyone knew what they're supposed to do, including the natives. No one was interfering into what another person did, no one was trying to dominate over anyone else, the most interesting behavior I observed was the agreement of each individual to one another. The road was almost cleared, whichever the vehicle reached there were allowed to pass through, but they had to wait for sometimes, till the crane finished a particular task.

Similarly, an auto-rickshaw came and parked there. It took a few minutes for us -the audience - to notice that they were going to a hospital, the natives asked the crane service to stop and to give way for the rickshaw, with all the authority that, that was to be done at once. No one opposed him or rather everyone must be thinking it to be of first priority. I was observing the mission for more than 1 and half an hour and I hardly heard a single word of denial. Probably the society has evolved to think (really? or have been trained to behave so?) in a more civilized manner, making fewer conflicts and to work with wonderful cooperation. The mission wasn't finished when I left the place after 12.30 am. But it could've been done faster if we had a better instrument collection for the rescue team. The infrastructure definitely puts limits on one's ability and hardworking nature, which could delay the system and hence the progress of a society. Readers, what do you think about it?

as a footnote: my hostel mates who came around 2.30 am said that people were working even at that time. Within 24 hours the road transport has been reestablished; the wooden pieces were moved to an unused compound near the road. Additionally, the wooden pieces are still there, maybe there are procedures for the forest/environment dept. to involve into it and to remove them... We have to evolve more, by modifying the infrastructure and the communication in between different departments...