Not much time has passed since the day I saw her for the very first time, though the coeval has changed a bit more than expected. Twelve years ago she was taken in guard by my branches and now she is the reason for my happiness.
It was sunny and humid July afternoon when a two-year-old lost girl came near me and sat beneath my branches. I was a young, green and flowering Gulmohar then. My shade was enough to provide a downtrodden and lost girl shadow for the time being. She slept hugging me and I, as a savior, tried protecting her. The day passed by and she somehow calmed her senses, although her eyes were searching something which I do not know. As we moved ahead in the deeper night, a man approached her and intimidated her to go with him. Scared to the core, I tried moving my branches but it went in vain. As they stepped down the pavement, my other four-legged child came and started barking scaring the man to death. He backed off and my second child was safe. We both then took a pledge to protect the girl till our last breath.
Years kept on changing and I kept on seeing her playing around me. Her big equivocal eyes were so beautiful that it left a magic spell on people around her. Her smile made my leaves twirl and in happiness, I showered my flowers on her. During the daytime, I saw her pleading alms from the ‘haves’ of the society and at night she used to lay under my shade, creating stories and imagination. How beautiful it was to be a part of her unadulterated imaginary world. We used to travel from stars to stars and across oceans. Her eyes had dreams, dreams which were not meant to be fulfilled; questions which do not have answers; and aspirations for the destination which has no road. As the morning ray used to fall on her face, she was brought to her real world–the world of poverty and misery. Again, her day was lost in revolving around the traffic light which somehow reflected her own life.
Red. Yellow. Green.
And amid her unusual parent and sibling, she grew up to be a beautiful person.