Once upon a time stood a tree between two houses. Every day, the ladies used to come under it in the afternoon and gossip over the achar-making process. Each day, the grandparents would sit with a book under it and have a game of chess. One day, underneath it, the children were engaged in children's play and making merry when the boy playfully pushed the girl. The mothers argued. The fathers had a fist fight. They decided to build a boundary wall. The tree stood in the way. It was cut down. A massive wall was constructed. Like them, many other houses followed. The city turned into a skyline of cement. Not a tree in sight. And then, when the people choked in smog, they remembered the same old tree that once stood there. Now, who was to be blamed, really?
~ Suranya