CRUEL, heartless and merciless was evil wind that blew in last week, piloted with ferocity by Cyclone Tauktae herself! Scorn writ all over her face, she mowed down all in her path; trees, lampposts, hutments and people themselves.
I beheld her destruction, as like a boxer with a wicked left punch she laid low trees in my backyard, some even a hundred years old.
Yes, indeed, ‘twas a cruel wind that blew that night, formed by currents, moulded by nefarious nature herself.
That night I realized that nature, otherwise so calm, so yielding in her affections to viewers who beheld her, could also be vicious, violent and yes, villainess.
But next day I realized that man could be the same also! He was a CA, educated, suave, seemingly honest, and well established.
He stood the day after the cyclone before Gulmohur tree that had withstood the storm. She and her sister tree stood elegant and beautiful, with her red flowers bringing hope to a post cyclonic day.
In my daily walks, I marvelled at their beauty, and thanked God they had weathered cruel storm, or so I thought, till I saw too late, that they had not weathered the cruel hand of man!
No storm had laid her down, no cruel wind, but an electric saw. Unlike the tempest, that had raged that night, I had not heard sound of surreptitious sound that cleanly split her trunk, and that of her sister.
She lay sliced clean on the ground, as the CA’s eyes through defiant mask stared at me. “Why?” I asked.
But excuses made were meaningless. All he had been afraid was his car would be dented had branch fallen.
And as I stare at wreckage of leaves, branches, and broken hearted crimson flowers that lie on the ground, I ask quietly, “What was the difference between Cyclonic act and that which educated CA did?
And from the remnants of the trees comes a sigh, “One was brainless force driven by nature, the other an educated scholar, who with knowledge of how important trees were especially in this oxygenless epidemic, someone who should have been spreading knowledge and learning about the value of foliage, flora and fauna, instead led the way in callous act!”
And this is how our country crumbles, when we the educated, lead worse than mindless cyclone.
We walk without masks, and those less educated, follow, thinking if sahib can, why can’t I? We keep silent at other junctures when even though we have knowledge of the law, turn away when injustice happens! Cruel, heartless and merciless, was not just the heartless wind that blew in last week, but more so, quite often are we the educated of this our country..!
