My father told the tenants to leave
Who lived on the houses surrounding our house on the hill.
One by one the structures were demolished
Only our own house remained and the trees.
Meaning
Tenants – People who live on rent
The structures
Demolished
Questions
Why did the poet’s father ask the tenants to leave?
Who lived on the houses surrounding our house on the hill.
One by one the structures were demolished
Only our own house remained and the trees.
“Trees are sacred,” my grandmother used to say.
Felling them is a crime but he massacred them all.
The sheoga, the oudumber, the neem were all cut down
But the huge banyan tree stood like a problem
Whose roots lay deeper than all our lives.
My father ordered it to be removed.
Meaning
Sacred – Holy
Felling – Cutting
Massacred – Cut down
The sheoga
The oudumber
Neem
Questions
What had grandfather think of cutting trees?
“Trees are sacred,” my grandmother used to say.
Felling them is a crime.
Who massacred all the trees?
The sheoga, the oudumber, the neem were all cut down
But the huge banyan tree stood like a problem
Whose roots lay deeper than all our lives.
My father ordered it to be removed.
The banyan tree was three times as tall as our house.
Its trunk had a circumference of fifty feet;
Its scraggy aerial roots fell to the ground;
From thirty feet or more so first they cut the branches
Sawing them off for seven days and the heap was huge
Insects and birds began to leave the tree.
Meaning
Banyan tree
Lay deeper than all our lives
Circumference
Scraggy
Aerial roots
Sawing them off
The heap
And then they came to its massive trunk
Fifty men with axes chopped and chopped
The great tree revealed its rings of two hundred years
We watched in terror and fascination this slaughter
As a raw mythology revealed to us its age.
Meaning
Soon afterwards we left Baroda for Bombay
Where there are no trees except the one
Which grows and seethes in one’s dreams, its aerial roots
Looking for the ground to strike.
Questions
How was Bombay different from Baroda?
What kind of trees are there in Bombay?
Why are the areal roots not able to strike the ground?
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