Trees always stay. For men may come and men may go, but trees will always go on forever. They always stand….
Until when the men’s greed destroys them.

When the construction of Benson’s house was taking place, there was a huge banyan tree with its branches spread to a large extent. The banyan tree was just opposite to where our house was constructing. It was a vacant plot. The branches were too wide and large that the whole plot always remains in the shelter of the banyan’s branches even if it was too hot outside.

It was the tree that came first. The tree was present there even before my birth. Later Benson came to know that the banyan tree was present since the time when my there and mother was born even far longer than when my brother and sister was born. He came to know about the tree’s age when the workers were discussing during digging in the soil before the construction on that plot. They came to know about this by seeing the tree’s roots that were spread to a larger distance. Their house was in the close vicinity of that tree. There were many trees all around the plot within one kilometre of range. There were Neem, Ashoka, Peepal and many species of other trees were present. The trees surrounding the plot were uncountable. But only the banyan tree was close to their plot. One and the only one that was strong enough to stand independently.

When the construction of the house was complete, it looked so beautiful that Benson could only gaze at it. Later, he realised that the house was standing not on the cement or bricks but on the roots of the Banyan tree. Many birds had built their nest on the banyan tree because the tree was huge enough to accommodate many birds. At that time, there was no built other than our house. It was only our house that was built in that area. With the passage of time, our house got a name which was called, “The house with Banyan tree”. People no longer remember the address of our house they only knew one name that was, “The house with Banyan tree ”. Everyone that visits our house had no confusion in finding the way to our home. Because the recognition of our house was clear and didn’t match with others. Every person was clear cut about the name of the house. That was sufficient! Every new person that came to our house without any issue of finding the way. We came to know by birds chirping that someone has arrived at our home, even before that person knocks on the main door. When the birds start chirping, “Mother always said to me, “Son, someone has visited us, go and see who has arrived.” I along with my other two siblings would rush to the room that was beside and the main door and would peep into the window and see, someone actually has visited us.” In front of the door, someone was every time found to be waiting.

Each day early in the morning, the Banyan tree always played a huge role in waking up everyone in the house and helping us in washing our faces. My mother used to wake up at dawn. Later my father would wake up. My father would go outside the house and would break a tender branch from the banyan tree. And then he would give everyone pieces from the broken branch so that we would brush our teeth with that branch. In past days, we would use to brush like this. My mouth would always develop a bitter taste, but days passed and I got habitual to it. We couldn’t have imagined our morning without that tree. Whenever my father had gone for the business trees I would break the branch and distributed pieces of it to my family members. So, this is how our morning was spent with the Banyan tree. We along with the tree was a complete and a joint family. The tree was a part of our family now. My father income was not that much that he could construct a house. He was the only one in our family that would earn and rest we all were to spend that money. But even after having such low income, he had a habit of saving every penny that he could. And by that, he solely was responsible for building such a huge and a beautiful house. Earlier we used to live in a rented house. We all left behind the pains that we used to have for living in a rented house.

Our house was neither huge nor small. Our house had three rooms along with a kitchen. The name of every room was decided. The very first was named as, “The front room”. In this room, the shelter of the banyan tree would penetrate even inside the windows and doors. In the front room whether our family members were present or the not the banyan tree was always present there. The second was named as the “The middle room”. It was the central point of our house. Every ritual, every pooja, even the inaugural pooja happened in this room. The birth ceremony of my younger brother took place in this room only. Mine and my elder sister birth ceremony happened in some rented house. My mother who used to suffer maximum due to our shady, untidy rented house; now haven’t complained even a single time in our new house. My mother believes that every dark is followed by light, every sad moment later invites the happier ones. Her all beliefs come true.