corner of the garden which surrounded the house. The mango trees were laden with green unripe mangoes, each bursting with energy. I began to recognize & observe each mango tree, every mango and their ripening process.
There was a mango tree with twisting tree trunk which looked like a human torso. Without my being aware, this tree trunk entered in the expression of my creativity, both in ‘drawing’ & in ‘painting’. The tree trunk began to acquire & change its personality according to the needs of my creativity.
This mango tree was a world in itself - a co-existent world. I began to recognize every bird and his voice who visited this mango tree to look for a ripe mango, for rest, to avoid summer heat, to voice his presence to attract a partner, for romance, in search of a safe place to make a nest, lay eggs and rear the children..... all these nuances began to enter my thoughts & my creativity.
Sitting near the mango grove, one day I saw a small young bird’s first flight from his nest to the top of the mango tree along with the promptings of his parents. Next day, he was flying in the

sky, all alone. Outside the entrance gate of the house flows a canal and parallel to it runs the road. In the morning, first to walk on this road were children, in groups and singly, going to school. Some were in a hurry to reach the school, some were dreaming and walking and some naughty ones carried a stone in their hands to hit the fruit laden trees to taste the unripe mangoes. Beyond the road was an orchard of lichi trees. Two parrots used to come there every morning ..... pluck ripe lichies, peel the skin of the fruit with their beaks, eat the fruit and threw the seeds on the ground despite the protests of the old bald gardner.
At about the same time, I used to wake up, a squirrel used to come down from the tree on one side of the gate followed by her children. All of them, except one, crossed the gate in a line, jumped on the fruit tree on the other end of the gate and vanish in it. The naughty one, amongst them, came down and jump on the ground, looked around curiously and then used to run to join the family. Seeds of eaten fruits used to start falling on the ground at irregular intervals from

the tree in which the family of squirrels vanished.
A dove used to descend on the gate and after arranging her feathers flew away. Sometime, I used to see a snail start crossing the courtyard leaving behind a sticky trail. It took him ages to cross the courtyard. First rays of the sun fell on two butterflies, painted by an artist, hovering over two mangoes, one after the other.The monsoon was expected any day, because sometimes, you saw a small cloud in the morning sky separated from its mother monsoon cloud.
Away from Delhi when I expressed in my creative visual imagery, all the eye’s & heart’s intakes entered my creativity..... ‘Naika & the Tree Trunk’.
The tree trunk became as human as the Naika.... it grew feet & evolved gestures.

Ved Nayar

It was dark summer night. The air was still and the heat was suspended in the air.
A man appeared from the darkness and approached a row of 50 trees.
He took out a brush, dipped it in the bucket of paint and marked a big cross on the trunk of a tree. He repeated this act 50 times till every tree in the row was marked for death by axing.
The row of trees had come in the way of the progress of man.
The marked trees squeezed within, turned pale and there was a shudder and a cry. Some leaves fell in anguish. The man did not hear anything and did not see anything.
His job accomplished, the man sat down, resting his back on the trunk of a marked tree and lit a cigarette. Between drags of smoke and drowsiness he mumbled curses against the summer heat, his job and growing poverty.
After the initial shock, the trees voiced discontent at the unending ill-treatment meted out to them by Man and conferred amongst them whether they should retaliate by shedding all the
leaves to deprive the Man of the shade

from the scorching summer Sun and letting a heavy branch fall on this man’s head.
The thoughts were shunned, retaliation being a man’s trait.
But the silent agitation continued and all the trees joined in.
The trees decided to leave the Man and the intensity of the compulsion to leave Man reached such a pitch that feet grew to the trees.
The trees started walking to leave the Man.
The jerk of their step woke up the man, who was leaning against the tree.
Fear ran through his body, for what he saw he could not believe.
He ran into the darkness shouting-----the trees have grown feet.
Some heard his shouts in the sleep----but could not believe it----and continued sleeping.
Morning editions of newspapers did not carry the news because the information reached them late. When the Man woke up in the morning, most of them realized only then, the absence of trees amongst them.