Evergreen

 About 4 months ago, something happened in a campus in Chennai. Some trees were mercilessly chopped off and some were ‘trimmed’. What makes this worse is the fact that the Institution is known for its aesthetic sense and the founder of the Institution- who in fact revolutionised the dance form in terms of breaking the shackles and bringing in some novel ideas on stage - was known for her love for nature. She will surely be turning in her grave as her ideals have been murdered by people who manage the Institution now.

Personally speaking, it affected me a lot not just because I love nature and trees, but also because I have a special attachment with that campus, my childhood memories being the main reason. Though I came to realise this much later, seeds for my love for nature and also my sense of aesthetics were sown in this campus. I also remember sowing seeds in that campus on the first day of Aadi every year. Though the two seeds in the previous two lines are different, there is an irrefutable connection between the two.

I have always wondered as to why a majority of humans do not pay attention to trees around them; as to why they do not respect the trees; as to why they do not love the trees; as to why they turn a blind eye to the cutting of trees.

In one of the recent books I read- The Island of Missing Trees- the author Elif Shafak says trees can communicate between themselves and that the trees have feelings though this may differ from the feelings of humans. As per Indian astrology too, each of the 27 stars is associated with a particular tree and if there is a defect in the horoscope, people are advised to plant a particular tree or at least water the tree. Note also that all major temples have a ‘stala vruksha’.

It is easy to brush all these aside as blind beliefs and superstitions. But what cannot be and should not be brushed aside is the fact that trees have the freedom to live in this world as much as humans have. Therefore, humans have no right to cut any tree.

The song of the day may not have any relation-direct or indirect- with trees. However, it talks about shedding violence and inculcating a spirit of camaraderie among humans.

The beginning of Kamsam Dhwamsam from Keecharallu (1991) itself makes me feel the pain of the trees. The humming by SPB, Chitra and chorus sounds like the agony suffered by those beautiful creatures whose language is not understood by humans. The drums, which play only the second beat of the 4-beat cycle prominently and the claps which do the same in the next half, show the depth of the pain. The piped instruments too sound a melody which is abstract.

The MaNipravaLam in the Pallavi-which has a mix of Telugu and Hindi- is more relevant as it talks about arts- fine arts at that! The irony here cannot be missed as the Institution under reference is known for teaching and training students on Fine arts!

The piped instruments continue sketching an abstract melody in the first interlude with the bass guitar and the rhythm guitar nodding their heads rather nonchalantly. The short silence in the interlude and the melody that follows, show images of violent acts.

It is the second interlude which musically depicts the inhuman act (or should I say ‘human act’ as humans have become immune to all these and have learnt to accept everything having lost the ability to question things which violate nature?). In the first segment, I see the first act of ‘cutting’ with the perpetrators going about their job with glee, while in the next segment the trees fall one by one. In the last segment, the trees utter a cry inaudible to insensitive souls.

Nothing can be more appropriate than the lines in the second charaNam-

You are the Temple of ‘ta ka tai/ ta tai’.

Naatya, Sangeetam, Shudhdha Dhanyasi..

Is anybody listening?