The ever needy child and the ever sacrificing tree(parent)

The ever needy child and the ever  sacrificing tree(parent)

By

P.R.Ramachander

(Based on the great posting by my friend  Anantha Narayanan in face book. My acknowledgements to him. )

There was a young boy of a little known village,

Who used to daily go near tree and sing and play?

The tree used   to daily become happy   on seeing him

And   started loving   that   boy as if he was its son.

One day   the boy did not come   and the tree became very sad,

And after   a few days he came with a sad face   and sat near the tree,

And when the tree asked “Why he was sad?”  He said   with great sorrow,

“All my friends have pretty dolls but I do not have any and so I am sad.”

The tree   told “you did not come for such a simple reason and please,

Harvest all the fruits on my branches, go to the   market and sell them.

You will get lots and lots of money to buy prettier dolls.”

The boy did that, got lot of money and bought lots of dolls.

But he stopped coming to see   the tree and came again after many years,

The tree burst in to tears of joy on seeing him and told him, “Come on.

Climb on my branches and play.” But the man who was once a boy told,

“Now I am a family man and I have wife and kids. I am sad because I do not have a home.”

The tree laughed aloud and said, “Cut all my branches and build a home,

For you with them but please   do come daily as I am sad   at not seeing you.”

The man agreed, cut off all   the trees   branches, made planks and beams,

And built a pretty home for him and his family   but he stopped coming to the tree.

But he did come after many many years to the tree   with a sad face and told,

“My fishing boat    got broken down and I am not able    to earn anything and so I am sad,”

The tree who has happy to see him said, “Cut off all my trunk   and leave only roots,

And build a fishing boat with them. I would cry because I know   you will never come.”

That middle aged man cut almost the entire tree left the stump   and roots,

Built a great boat   and became rich but never bothered   to visit the old tree.

Years rolled by   and after a long, long time an old man with grey hair and,

Sunken cheeks came in search of the tree and simply    sat there on the earth.

With tears flowing torrentially   from its eyes   the tree told   him whom it loved,

“I do not have fruits, nor branches, nor stems or anything to give you.” And he said,

“I do not have teeth and I cannot bite your fruits and I do not have strength,

To build a home or boat and I do not need them as my family   has deserted me.”

He continued “I need rest” can I keep my head on your roots   and take rest”

And the tree said of course   and at last, the tree   became really   happy.

This story is that of us all and our parents, when we were young we played with them,

And all our needs   were met by them and we   did not even bothered to visit them,

When all that wanted were love   and affection and our time.