An evening with a tree
Evening walks in the Osmania
University take me to the - endearing to eyes and friendly to the spirit - Landscape
Garden many a time. It is here that I have come across noisy enthusiastic parakeets
and very slim hornbills.
The only day I have walked
with the camera I enjoyed with a tree – going up, caressing its trunk, marveling
at the colours and shades of leaves, flowers and more that lay scattered around
its feet, wondering how calm and
friendly it stood and more!
The clicking also left me with
a host of questions – What interactions does it have with its neighbours? Which
bird species it provides food and shelter to? How do the students who come to
study in the garden perceive it? How do seasons affect it? How common or
uncommon it is in the campus and the landscape?
What does Pradip Krishen have to say of the species?
This is a 'friendly to climb' tree and how I love it!
Branches that give a feel of its vast experience.
Branches that carry - like a book - many stories within them waiting to be read.
Branches that remind one of the open
and welcoming arms of a friend.
After clicking for a while I
realized I was not alone but was being watched!
Almost appeared as if a 'good at craft' student had made a leaf and put a large pin atop.
Dense and complex!
How beautiful this settled –
as if the curve was meant for it!
And the flowers
All
images are of a single tree on a lovely and long May evening.
So gently you put it Nimesh :-) Reminds me of this poem -
ReplyDeleteHave we seen a tree?
The word is not the thing, so do we see without the word?
Do we see with all our senses?
Have we touched a tree? Smelt it? Tasted it? Climbed it? Sat under it?
Have we seen it in the rain?
Heard the sound of rain on its leaves?
Have we seen it at the break of dawn?
Heard the first birds that wake on its branches?
Have we seen it in the changing light of day?
Against the sunset? Against dark clouds?
At night? When the moon is full? In the dark night?
In the flash of lightning?
Have we seen it when its leaves fall?
When the new leaves come?
When it swings in the storm?
When a breeze stirs its leaves?
When a squirrel runs a loop on its trunk?
When from upon a branch an owl hoots to a distant hoot?
Have we seen its shadows changing with the day?
And with the seasons?
Its shadows by moonlight?
Do we know what its roots feel drawing up the sap?
Its leaves, in the first rain after summer?
Can we flower to spring like a tree?
And drop our leaves to autumn?
Can we stand and perish like a tree?
Have we heard the woodpecker on a dead tree?
Seen the termites turning it to earth?
Have we lost ourselves in a tree?
Have we become a tree?
The word tree is not the tree.
Source: Taleemnet, For They Have Their Own Thoughts.
Poem By: Manas Mukul Das
Thanks Abhinav ~
ReplyDeleteQuite love loitering in the campus ~
The poem is loved : will re read ~