Stumped but not uprooted!

I remember several tales as told to me, as a child, by my grandmother.
My grandparents had a huge mansion , with several large trees grown within their large compounds.
All of us, as a family, would gather here in summers, as a kind of annual reunion.
The days being long, evenings would stretch too.

They would finally come to an end, with some very interesting tales from my grandma, after a sumptuous dinner.
We would huddle around her, under one of the huge trees, outside, out there in the front courtyard. More often than not, this would be under the neem tree, by choice.

She would lovingly fan us, with a hand fan, and tell stories, sitting/reclining on a padded up, 'char-poys.' with several bolster pillows, strewn around, for us to rest on.

One of them, I remember, very prominently, is about trees and there large bigheartedness! A similar story is actively doing the rounds on the net, but here is how I remember the one told to me.


There lived once upon a time a very young boy, who used to spend time playing with his toys, by a full grown fruit bearing tree.

Bye the bye they became talking companions.

One day the little boy got bored and told to the tree, " I am bored, I have played with these toys too many times! "

The tree replied, "OK, don't dismay, you can climb up on me, and play on my branches."

The boy was very happy with this suggestion and sure enough he started having a lot of fun climbing/ playing and sitting high up, on the branches of the tree.

We have all done that as kids,have we not?

Soon, he started school, therefore; he spent more time away from the tree, but one day! he came back to it. The tree was overjoyed to see its young companion, and it encouraged him to climb on, but the child refused!
“My school clothes are going to get dirty if I climb up on you." complained the child!

The tree thought for a while, and said, "OK , don't worry, Go! Bring a rope and tie it to one of my branches, and you can enjoy a swing."

The boy liked that idea, he quickly slung a swing as directed, and here he would come back every day, to sit for a while and swing on that swing, lazily at times, but aggressively when he would be in an upbeat mood! The branch on which it was slung, on it's part, took the load and the resulting scars that resulted due to constant friction and rub, were also born by it, in its stride, and the tree never bothered/complained, ever.

Instead:during summers, with heat becoming unbearable, whenever it used to get too hot, the tree would tell him to rest in its shade as well. The boy would lie down and rest there, to beat the sweltering heat.

Time progressed, and the boy soon out grew the swing and discarded it.
As he got older, and moved on to college, times became harder on him, and he ran short of food very often.

One day he went back to the tree finally, as he had stopped frequenting it for a long time, due to his own preoccupation with college.
The tree recognized him immediately and welcomed him.
The boy happened to be hungry and complained to the tree, " I don`t have any food to eat, my stomach is cringing with hunger."
The tree smiled and said, “Pull down my branches and pluck off the fruit, and fill yourself up."
The young guy, without batting an eye lid, jumped up and tore off one of the smaller branches from the trunk!

He ate and ate, to his fill.
He did not stop there.
Over the weeks, he tore off all the branches and ate all the fruit.
After the fruits had all gone, and the tree was left barren, he went away and didn`t come back to the tree as he thought it had given him all that it had.

With time, when he reached his middle age, as a man, he came back to the tree and said: "I have been very successful in life. I have earned a lot of money, I have a huge house and I have found a great wife. Now I feel I need to travel and see the world."

The tree by was now pretty old, and was not fruit bearing any more, but to continue to help its long time companion, it didn`t wait long, and offered help by telling him , “Don’t worry, Go! bring a saw, cut off my trunk and make a boat out of it. Then launch that boat into the ocean, and there you are! Well equipped to set sail with your wife, to see the wonders of the world. Do that! "

Without an iota of hesitation the man cut down the tree. Branch by branch.
He began making the boat to sail away with his wife. He made one too, by cutting not one but all the branches and the trunk as well. Soon he was done, and he set sail with his pretty wife in tow!.

At this point, very emphatically we were asked by our grandmother, to note and remember : The same tree, which the man as a child, had played on, later: ate its fruit, laid in its shade, now, as a married man, had been cut down by him, to make a boat, to set sail for his own pleasurable pursuits. As soon as the boat was finished, he sailed away and wasn`t seen by the tree and his folks, again.

All that now remained of that glorious tree, once the boat was gone, was a stump, that couldn't be cut by the man! With time this stump grew roots around it so much so, they surfaced and showed too, all around it.

The boy turned man was not seen or heard , for several years!

One day, an old man, was spotted walking past that very stump, that was once a glorious tree.
The stump hadn't recovered from the time the tree was cut down by this old man.

The old man walked very feebly, meekly, up to the stump, but didn`t say anything.
Instead, he felt the tears trickling down from his eyes, as he stood by it's side.

Sensing the grief and recognizing the now old man, as the then young boy, this time, the once upon a time tree and now the stump, spoke once again, in a very faint, feeble voice,

"Hello son, how have you been. Welcome back. I am sorry son. I don`t have a trunk for you to climb on any more, nor do I have fruits for you to eat, or branches of shade for you to lie in. All I have now to offer to you, are my deep roots. How do you think will they help you at this time and hour?"

With tear filled eyes the visibly moved old man whispered, " That`s fine, I don't need anything from you any more. All I seek is the permission to lie by your side, by your roots, as tree roots are the best place to lie down, snuggle up and sleep after a long arduous life."

He was lovingly allowed to do just that, with the same love and affection by the tree turned stump! That is where the old man spent his time in solace thereafter.

Thus ended the story and the my grandma would explain the moral as follows.

You see: The tree symbolizes our parents, and the boy symbolizes, us.

These days we make use of our parents like we use tissue from a tissue box! We use them all up, and don`t even think of being thankful.
We discard the tissue too, once we are done with it.

Our parents on their part, are like the tree; they stay with us, till the very end, to give selflessly, and to fend for us too, to the best of their capabilities.
Till their last breath.

Finally, we go back to them when they are old, and seek solace at their feet, if we are fortunate enough to have then amongst us, alive.

Picture the old man lying on those roots in the end, and the stump he had architected!

Stumped...are you?



Axee
Alias
Arun