Once Upon A Time

Parting, Separation, and Loss is something part and parcel of life. This is something that we go through gradually almost every day. Not all of us sit and reflect about it. There are moments of stillness, often I used to wonder would things ever change? But, every second, things are in a process of change. Time spent with people who passed on, now, when looked back looks like a different paradigm, a dream, an illusion. All that time now look like a fairy tale. Once upon a time and that time was just ‘Once’, but back then it looked like a prolonged conflict and confrontation against the time and space. I often go into this mode of introspection, how this lane will be after twenty years. Perhaps the grocery store may turn into a big mall. That corner where this beggar used to sit with a dog. What happened to that beggar, could he manage to sustain all his life begging? Was anyone there when he passed away? What happened to that Dog?

Just a few weeks back when I went for a walk in the park behind my house, I saw this sudden emptiness. To my horror, I saw this huge thick tree went missing. I stood for a minute on the spot looking for traces of the tree. Apparently, the resident welfare association had to cut it because the branches were growing inside the house. The reason which never made sense to cut off the whole tree. Unbelievable! This tree now has become ‘Once Upon A Time’. Right in front of me the once upon a time came to exist. That huge tree which witnessed the history of that place passing through for more than 100 years. We have let go of the archived material of our history by cutting down the tree.  Ah! But all these thoughts would sound all cliché. They must have sowed seeds in the huge park to compensate the loss. How do you compensate something which used to be a treasure house of all those time and space? What could tree give, wood, oxygen, shade, and houses for birds, squirrels? Who cares about the history of few 100 years. In the place of trees, these days lie nothing more than a heap of trash. On which the cats and dogs take a nap during winters.