Under the Tree
It was a gloomy day with a heavy gust of rainfall just that had finished pouring its outburst on our mud. The weather outside was perfect for a good walk but I was feeling quite dull. It was because I was not allowed to go to school since my mom had refused to let me go. Her justification was that she will not be able to pick me up in case it rains heavily, which indeed did happen. I was missing my friends at school. There were quite a few of them who would miss me too as they would not get to witness their daily dose of entertainment for which I was the source. Languishing within the house and helping my mom was how I spent my day. It stopped raining sometime back. The clock struck 4 and I was eager to get out of the house and spend the rest of the day reading under the banyan tree as I usually do after my school hours. My mom allowed me to go as she was convinced that it would not rain again. The reason I get out of my house after my school timings is because I hate to witness my parents fighting over petty issues. Anyways, I carried the Champak books with me and ran towards the tree which was about half a kilometer from my house.
I reached the banyan tree completely exhausted as I was running at the best of my speed. Sat down and took my water bottle to quench my thirst.I stayed in a beautiful village in the state of Maharashtra. Rains here were a boon. This village had a small library, a school, lots of small shops, a park and a meeting place for the Panchayat heads. This place - under the tree - is my favorite place in the entire village. The reason being it is calm, quiet and peaceful. I do most of my studying here. I also read and paint under the tree. Due to the rains, it was a mess out here. I knew this would be the case. Hence, I had brought a mat along to ensure my skirt doesn't get dirtied. People usually walk past the tree but no one actually sits or sleeps under it. For almost a year I have been coming here and now it is like my property. I get disturbed when I see someone sitting under the tree and wait till the person goes away. Every day I get a bag full of books, a water bottle, some snacks. Today the mat was an extra burden. The tree’s branches were visible from a cement structure that was built around the tree. Hence, there was a comfortable place to sit and wile away time. Also, beneath the cement structure, I had created some space where I could store all my books so that I needn’t occupy the space at home and needn’t carry them again. Apart from books, there was a board on which I used to practice maths, a notepad wherein I wrote down stuff whenever I felt sad or extremely excited about something. I had also kept a box full of stationery just in case I needed them and some candies as well.
I sat down and took out my Champak books. I get some pocket money from my parents every week to buy some candies or have some fruit juices. I have those from half the money and the remaining half I save to buy books which I love to read from. Apart from the rains, it was a very usual day. I started reading and passersby just wished me or asked me to get back home as it might start raining again. Sometimes my friends used to come over and we studied together, did our assignments or I read them stories that I had written.
But today, none of my friends were around. I am guessing rains were the reason. But I liked being alone. Whenever I was alone, apart from reading or studying, I used to ponder over what is it that I actually wanted to do with my life. Sometimes it was teaching, sometimes writing, sometimes working at the bank, sometimes doctor, sometimes traveling, etc. I was confused. I was in my eighth grade and I had to do a lot of studying. Hence, I thought of not wasting my time and took out my maths practice books to work out the problems. As I was struggling with my problems, a young guy – in his early twenties just came to get a sneak peek into what I was doing. This village of ours, where I had been born and brought up was a small one and everyone knew almost everyone else. So, when this young chap happened to greet me, I was just wondering if had seen him somewhere.
“Hello, hi, my name is Samir. Can I sit here for sometime?”
“Hi, my name is Meena. This is my place but you can sit here for a while.” He seemed to be quite inquisitive to know what I was writing down in my notebook. He realized I was working out my problems but could not get the answers right.
“May I help you?” he asked me.
I hesitated in the beginning because my parents have always warned me against interacting with strangers. But then, my anguish of not being able to solve the problems was much more than the thought of interacting with a stranger. Moreover, he seemed to be quite sensible in his dressing and attitude. I nodded my head positively. He solved the problem in a couple of minutes and gave my notebook back to me. I was amazed and enthralled to realize that he could be my savior for my next week’s exams.
“Thank you so much. Can you please help me with a few more sums so that I am well versed with such problems?”
“Sure. Why not?” and then for the next 1 hour he explained me all the sums and I managed to do 10 sums and got all of them right.
“Thank you so much once again. I have got an exam next week. And I am supposed to study 3 chapters for the same. Today is Tuesday. So I pretty much have 5 more days to finish my chapters. Can you please help me out till then? Just 1 hour every day, please?”
He thought for about 5 seconds and then responded affirmatively. I was glad that I finally got someone to teach me my toughest subject – Maths.
“Oh, by the way, I have never seen you around before. Are you new to this place? And, what do you do here?”
“Yes, I am very much new to this place. I am here with one more friend of mine – Akash. We work with a NGO that works for the cause of cleanliness. As part of our new project, around 500 volunteers have been sent to various villages across India wherein we teach various practices of keeping the house and the surroundings clean. It is a six month project. Within the next six months, we need to approach each and every household, educate them about how to go have a clean and hygienic life, make changes in houses if required and have periodic sessions with all villagers and submit the report for the same by the end of 6 months. So, it has been just 1 week since I came here and I am just interacting with the panchayat heads and the important people of the village. My work actually starts next week.”
“Wow. That sounds really great. It is like you are doing social service, right. That’s amazing!!!” For a moment, I was just pondering if this is what I wanted to do. Then I wished him luck and headed home as it was getting dark. I was just happy that I made a new friend today – Samir – who would help me with my critical problems of my life – the mathematical problems!!!
As decided the previous day, we met up at 4 PM under the banyan tree. He was already there waiting for me. I was the one who was late by about 5 mins. I apologized for being late and he laughed at my apologies. I realized there was one more guy. Samir introduced me to him. “Meena, this is Akash. Akash, this is Meena.”We greeted each other, spoke about our lives for the next 5 minutes and I spoke highly of Samir to Akash since he was taking out his time for me to help me clear my exams. I offered both of them the snacks that I had brought from home – Kachoris. We then got busy with working out problems. In the next couple of hours, it was just serious work and no fun. I had completed most of the problems from 1 chapter – Trigonometry. After I was done, Samir asked me to work out the remaining problems from home so that I don’t skip any sums. In the meantime, Akash was sitting beside and reading the Champak books. The next couple of days, I finished the next 2 chapters – Circles and Triangles from Geometry. The last 2 days, we were just revising the concepts and he asked me to do about 10 sums from each chapter. I got most of them right. Whatever I did make mistakes on, were taken up seriously and I re worked on them. On Sunday evening, Samir told me that his real work was to start from the next day onwards. I was a little disappointed because he won’t be able to teach me any maths going forward and I expressed the same to him. He immediately denied and said his work was from 8 in the morning till about 3 PM every day. Hence, he was free in the evenings, but he would have to work on his reports and preparations for the next day. But yes, he was ready to come and teach me for an hour every day. I asked him what would be his fees. He just smiled at me and hit me lightly on my head saying that I was crazy to have thought that he would collect fees from me.
My exam on Monday went well. He checked my question paper and was confident that I would have done well. I got my answer sheets the next day and to everyone’s surprise, I was amongst the top 5 in the class. I had scored 48/50. The top 3 had scored 50/50 and next one just missed 1 mark. My best friend – Vidya was awe struck to note that I was amongst the toppers. My teacher congratulated me. My best friend asked me how I managed to do this well. I told her about Samir. My mother and father were exhilarated too. My mom was aware that I had got a new friend – Samir – and he was helping me do well in my studies. She made some kheer (Sweet Soup) that day and asked me to offer it to Samir as well. Akash had also come over. Both Samir and Akash loved it and they were left craving for more. I offered them my share. Every day, Samir would teach me maths for about an hour and the next couple of hours I would do my remaining assignments and study other subjects whereas Samir used to work on his reports. Akash would come over twice a week and the remaining days, he used to play with the kids of the village. I asked Samir if he was not willing to play with the kids. He said he preferred teaching to playing. I liked Samir for the kind heart he had and his helpful attitude.
Some of the days, I used to read out to Samir the stories I had written. He would correct me wherever required, edit and give me back the corrected article. Every Saturday, after 1 hour of learning, we used to watch some nice Hollywood movies in his laptop. Initially I used to find it difficult to understand the accent but he used to help me by explaining the same. The more movies I watched, the better I understood them. He also encouraged me to follow the current affairs and told me that I should know what happened in the state, in our country and the world in general. I was good at reading so why not start reading newspapers is what he told. Soon, I started reading them with his help and asked him the meanings of difficult words I did not understand. He explained me everything patiently. Soon I used to take part in quiz competitions, debates and story writing competitions. Samir used to help me with them. Some I won, some I just participated. I was happy, Samir was happy and even my parents were really happy that I was improving as a kid and was not wiling away my time. He also taught me the importance of fitness and nutrition. Though my nutrition intake was great, my fitness levels were very poor. He told me he used to do yoga every day in the morning. I did not have time to learn yoga from him in the mornings. But he taught me the basis asanas and asked me to Suryanamaskar every day in the morning before I went to school. I did those regularly and realized I was getting more energetic and enthusiastic about each and every day that went by. He taught me more asanas on every Sunday which I practiced on the subsequent weekdays.
Yes, I was getting better in my studies, creative skills, current affairs, fitness, etc. I was content and happy that I got a great friend – Samir. Five months passed by and my teachers were really impressed with the way I progressed in my studies as well as extra curriculars. I attributed everything to Samir.
Now, it was that time of the year when the fair was being organized in the village. It was basically some rituals and ceremonies to be performed in the Shiva temple which was accompanied by street shops being set up, street food being served and some games like the mini giant wheel, tora tora being organized. For every family, this was an event that they always looked forward to. Streets used to start getting crowded by 5 PM and the madness went on till midnight. I went on one of the days with my parents. I asked Samir if he and Akash weren’t going. He thought for a while and said he would go if I would accompany them. “But I just went there last week. Moreover, my parents won’t give me extra money to go there.” I said.
“That’s fine. Leave the expenses to me. You just come along.”
We decided to go there on Sunday evening. I wore the best dress I had. Samir and Akash came to pick me up in their Scooty. It was a fun ride with the 3 of us in the same vehicle. We visited the temple and did some shopping. Samir insisted I buy some accessories. I just bought some ear-rings and bangles after Samir approving of them. Post that, we went on the rides which were all the more fun as I had the best company. We even got ourselves clicked in the local open studio – myself and Samir, Samir and Akash and then the 3 of us. Our stomachs started grumbling and we had to silence them. We hogged a lot of kachoris and drank lemon juice. By the time, I reached home, it was 10 PM. When I went to sleep, I felt this was the best day I ever had in this village. My mind was running through the images of whatever I had experienced today and it was fantastic. I was really tired to keep my mind wandering hence shut it off to go to sleep.
I was wearing a long white dress and standing at the edge of the river. It was night time and a full moon day. I was waiting since the last half an hour. Yes, he had arrived and he held my hand. I was so glad that I could meet him finally. He took my hand and kissed it. He said I was looking so pretty like an angel. Then, he hugged me gently and kissed me on my forehead. We sat down by the river side and I just leaned my head over his shoulder. The comfort that his shoulders gave me was incomparable to anything. He again kissed me on my forehead. And then on my eyes. My eyes were closed and I told him “I love you so much Samir.” And then I opened my eyes. I was so happy. But, it was a dream!!!
I really did not know what was happening to me. Samir!!! I had fallen in love with him. But, how could I? I am supposed to respect him. Not love him. He is like a guru to me. I had these conflicting thoughts going on in my mind. I could barely concentrate in class. After coming home, I had these thoughts creeping again when my mother called me out if I was not going to meet him today. “I am not keeping well. I think I will rest at home today.” My mother knew something was wrong but she did not bother me. Since I did not turn up under the tree, Samir came searching for me and my mother answered him at the door saying I wasn’t well. They had a brief conversation and he left. I did not meet him for about a week. I was really guilty for the feelings that I had over him. Finally, I told myself that I can’t keep doing this and had to face him today.
I went and sat under the tree. He came and stared at me. He knew something was wrong with me. “What is the matter? Why did you not turn up all these days?”
“I was not keeping well. I had slight fever.”
“Don’t lie. I know you are perfectly fine. Why don’t you tell me the truth? Did someone do something to you or tell you something?”
“Yes. You,” And I started crying. I burst out crying like never before. He was shocked to see my behavior and he just hugged me and made me feel better asking me to calm down. After about 5 minutes, when I stopped shedding my tears, he waited for me to talk.
“I am sorry. I shouldn’t be doing this. But I think I have fallen in love with you.” I saw him staring at me as if I confessed that I murdered someone. “I am guilty of my feelings and I know I am wrong. It is just that I wanted to get out of these feelings before I could meet you.”
“I am sorry too because maybe not intentionally, but unknowingly my actions have made you fall for me. I can understand your feelings. It is natural at this age for you. But believe me, years down the line, you will be coming across someone, someone incredibly better than me and who will love you a lot and take care of you like an angel. And this is definitely going to happen. It is just that you have to wait for sometime. For now, I am sorry and it is better we don’t meet henceforth. Anyways, I will be leaving this village in a week’s time and I have a lot of work to be completed by then. I will be tied up with work till then. I wish you the best in life and I thank you for spending time with me and making my stay here meaningful.” He just hugged me again and left.
The day before he was going to leave I cried so much. The next day, I went to his office hoping to meet him one last time before he left. I met Akash and he was glad he was leaving. Samir came down the stairs. I told Samir that I wanted to talk to him for a couple of minutes before he left. “Samir, I am going to miss you a lot. I am really thankful to you for helping me with my studies, creativity, yoga, everything. I am not sure if I would every meet anyone like you. Here. I got some kheer for you and Akash. Please take it along. Also, this is something that I made for you.” I handed him a piece of folded paper. He opened it. It was a painting of the tree where I had spent the most beautiful days of my life with him. Below the painting was written – Thank you so much (Meena).
“Thanks Meena. This is lovely. I will never forget the time I spent with you. You will always be special to me. Always. And this is for you. Read it after I leave. And thanks for everything.” He patted on my head and kissed on my forehead. I saw them boarding a jeep and leaving the village. We waved each other as tears started rolling from my eyes. I opened the letter as he was leaving.
Meena,
You are the most beautiful girl I have ever met so far. Your willingness to learn has always amazed. Your creativity skills are excellent. You have been my best company in this village. I am a very shy guy and hardly talk to girls. I wouldn’t be wrong if I said that you are the 1st girl I had got close to. Yes, we had something between us which was really beautiful and can’t be explained in words. But, given our age and society, it is difficult to take this forward. My stay here is worth cherishing because I got to spend a lot of time with you. I am also leaving the photo of us with you that we took at the Fair. I have a copy of the same too. Lovely photo, isn't it. I will keep it close to me forever. Sweetheart, I am sorry I broke your heart but you will always be my special girl.
Sorry once again,
