A Death On The Road.

The traveler was exhausted due to the intense heat of summer, he had been walking continuously until he had reached a huge banyan tree, it was the only one to protect him from the sun, he stated happily.

The banyan tree was a boon for the place, its roots flowing like a stream of a river deep into the ground.

It was a home for hundreds, as aesthetic as a safe, as strong as a rock, as magnificent as a mountain.

A small house under it was owned by the caretaker of this enchanting tree. She was by no means a weak, futile and traditional lady, she had taken care of this tree-like her own children. She never hesitated to speak in the foul, violent language if she discovered even a slight cut on the trunk as if it was an open wound on human flesh.

Every day hundreds of people sat under it, children played, women and men gossiped, travelers slept, squirrels ran about, birds chirped, little plants grew, kites got attached and stuck, and the dust settled.

Everybody adored the tree,and if the tree would have a voice it would speak to them too. Its hugeness kept on expanding in branches, embracing more people under it, every passerby stood in awe in praises of this creature.It filtered air without asking, we didn't even know it's age, some said it was 500, some 800, but we were assured of its ancient heritage as even the hill was considered a sacred one...

It's time to remove the concealment of tragedy which we all faced together, with aggressive sorrow and pain...

The highway attached to hill needed an expansion due to increased vehicles, as humans progress they leave behind traces of despair and griefs like always...

The tree was decided by the authorities to be cut,ending many lives including the one who gives it.The caretaker lady was inconsolable, Nobody had seen her crying exponentially before...she rejected food for days altogether, she even knocked off the authorities, so so desperately in vain...It makes me shiver to this day...

I was ten years old when I witnessed this, and even after a decade, I am as troubled as I was then.A lady protesting with all her energies and hopes draining down, she refused to leave the corpse for several hours, afterall It was a death on the road...