One of my two best friends, whom I lost in 1989

I don’t remember when I started walking. However, I am sure I must have taken longer than others to balance on my legs. Anyway, that is not the point to be discussed here. It’s about one of my two best friends, with whom I spent 7 to 8 years of my life, since the time I started walking until I lost it. I was so attached to it that maximum of my time during the days, I used to keep hugging it or stand beside it, leaning. It was hard for me to tolerate if someone else touched or hurt it.

Okay, let me first describe the features of my best friend (The White Frangipani flower Tree). Height about 7’, perimeter of the trunk – not more than that of a just married woman’s bangles. Every morning before I get up some street woman came and plucked all its flowers. Though I had never seen flowers in the tree, I knew how its leaves could be used. My mother used to pluck three leaves from it every morning for her prayers. She used to keep the leaves in front of the Basil plant in our courtyard and place some sweet on it as “Offerings” for worship. During those days, I used to ask my mother if the flower tree felt pain when she plucked the three leaves.

For several years in my life, I used to wonder if it was a tree without any fruit and flower. But one morning, when I got up early by chance, to find my friend imaginary beautiful in the early morning. It was filled with white coloured flowers looking just like an Oriya bride draped with a white saree for the marriage ritual. In front of my eyes, a woman was plucking all the flowers from the tree and the white coloured tree turned into green within few moments. I felt like pulling the woman’s leg so that she would fall down on the floor from the stone she was standing on. However, I soon realised that with all my power, I wouldn’t be able to even tickle her.

Though I never believed in destiny, they say how long we stay with anyone in life is already fixed on a prior basis. My father decided to detach my friend from our lives. I felt like someone was going to cut one of my body parts, but was too young to even stand before my father, rebelling was far away from coming into existence. He was a man of strong opinions. Changing his mind was almost impossible for anyone in my family. So the day was fixed when my best friend in front of our house was to be uprooted. The reason was cited to be the parking problems.

I was not informed about the date when the tree was to be uprooted. One day, I got up only to know that I lost my friend forever. Running towards the spot, looking at the hole that was created after uprooting the tree, shedding two drops of tears into the hole, these were the only things I could do at that time. I was feeling so helpless. I thought if these people had asked me for suggestions, I could have suggested the idea of shifting it to some other place. I didn’t know whether it was possible for them or not.

I was only eight years old then. Everyone was considering me a child. Truly speaking, I found all the grown up people in my family, whoever was directly or indirectly responsible for separating me from my best friend, to be more immatured than I was.