Under the Banyan Tree

16 September 1987

I have been working here in this city, as a mathematician for more than fifteen years, after I completed my PHD in mathematics in the year 1972 from a University in Andhra Pradesh—my native state. The college I studied is so far away my home. We live in a village which is deep inside from the city, I walked for more than five kilometres from my house to the main road line—only from where the bus service is available to the University.

At home, my mother, father and my younger brother stay together—along with his wife. I last came home for his marriage, which was six years ago. Though I am paid enough at the office, I am not interested in spending money for travelling—rather I money order home.

“Would you give me a ticket, for the seat which I already booked on 16^th Monday,” I bent down at the ticket counter—Howrah Junction, Kolkata, peeping through the hole, at the old aged man with bald head and wide—round framed brown spectacles.

I studied hard, though earlier I went to the single roomed school in my village, later I wrote for a school in the city and made myself into the school, which provided scholarship too. I believed in myself, my talent—got in to the university, passing the exam with single digit rank.

The train I got in ran for more than an hour and came to rest at an intermittent station. People rushing in and out of the train, it is a very small station—in the border of Kolkata. Most of the train compartments extended out from the platform, there is a temple just beside the station building. It is orange painted and there was flag on the top of the temple waving in the air. There was middle-aged man sitting in front of me, as soon as he saw the temple, he removed his footwear and folded his hands above his head, then uttered something—with his lips moved but, no sound came out. I smiled to myself when seeing that. I never believed in god thing, I believed in me, did only things that I wanted to. By profession and passion, I am a mathematician, I searched for proof in everything, that came to me. In the matter of god, I too wanted and searched for that, but till now I never found a thing as proof, that satisfied me.

After a long—nearly two days travel, I reached my destination—early in the morning, that too six hours far from my village—which I have to travel by bus. I managed to catch the bus. Standing, leaning, sitting—I somehow reached the road that cuts in to my village. The only means of travel to reach home is on foot, in the early afternoon, I started walking with only a bag.

I got indulged so much into math that, whatever I see I feel like measuring its weight or circumference or any other mathematical parameter. I work in a Mechanical department, where I need to check the weight and counter balances, equilibrium conditions of machines. I normally apply them to many other outside things other than only machinery. When I see something, I try to analyze it with my eyes.

About still a half distance left to reach my home, there was banyan tree its branches widely spread, the roots hanging from the top—not swinging. I was so tired and the sun is at the top of my head, the shade and a bit coldness under the tree, forced my eyes to close and take a nap. I pulled out a bed sheet from my bag and spread over the ground below in the shade. I lied down, giving rest to my backbone, helping myself to regain the exhausted energy.

Before I could close my eyes and slid in to sleep, I saw the branches, roots, the leaves and the fruits. I don’t know how but, the weakness, the sleep I wanted—everything walked away. I assumed the diameter of the trunk, then the branches, the branches were so heavy as the trunk, the thick hard roots hanging down from the branches, the leaves too were thick, adding weight to the branches—not like the normal trees have. Then my thoughts fell on to the fruits, they are light red and very small in size.

I really thought at that time, everyone just gets excited about the gods creation, but how could he miss such a small logic in his creation. Here, this is such a big tree and he has just given very tiny fruits, and when you look a bottle guard plant, it’s a climber, its stem is so thin like a rope and its fruits are such huge.

“If god is so creative, smart, intelligent—that everyone admires him, how could he add less weight to which can bare and very heavy weight to which cannot. Though everyone praises him, I will never,” I thought myself, slowly left that and diving in to sleep.

I sudden woke up, when I felt a hard hit on my cheek, I watched around and noticed a fruit of the tree above fell and rolled away from me, after small jumps.

My thoughts too stuck my mind, as the fruit did my cheek. What if there was a fruit in the size of bottle guard, growing to this?

With that incident, more than thirty years of stupidity came to an END.