The backside of my office was green once. There was a huge tree of tamarind. It was taller than our second floor, which is equivalent to the third floor of modern buildings. I don't know if anything untoward was done to the ground nearby that tree during various civil activities. One day the tree just got uprooted and fell down. There was another guava tree just outside my window. It used to compensate a little for the absence of the tamarind tree, and used to bear fruit in reasonable quantity. Small children used to raid it for the fruit. When they repaired our building, they dropped so much debris, cement, and whatever else they use for building, that I was afraid the tree would die. It survived. But it developed a fungal disease. I got the gardeners to try and cure it. The applied radical cure and just cut down the tree. I was almost devastated. But then the tree started growing up again from its cut stem. I started watering it from my window. It looked better for a few days. But then the toxic waste of the building repair job probably dissolved in water and poisoned the tree. It died. I was almost devastated yet again. Then I took from our balcony garden three flowering plants - two with red flowers and one with yellow ones. I planted them behind my office. They survived, grew and started flowering. The builder had left sufficient leakage of water from the repaired building so that the plants did not have to be watered. They were well when I went on vacation almost three weeks ago. I had to go to the hospital today while still on vacation, for administrative work. I looked at my garden when I could find some time. There was no garden. Someone had uprooted and removed all plants from that patch.
"Perhaps the civil engineers got the plants removed to protect the building" someone said.
'But they have left all the debris of the building construction work behind, more than three years after the work was completed" I said. "That is a greater duty of civil engineers than removing tiny plants."
"Perhaps someone stole the plants and sold them" someone said.
"Perhaps" I said. "But these were not very exotic plants that people would buy." Whatever it may be, this time I was totally devastated.
"Now don't plant any more plants there" my wife advised me, watching me grieve for those plants.
I nodded.
"Perhaps the civil engineers got the plants removed to protect the building" someone said.
'But they have left all the debris of the building construction work behind, more than three years after the work was completed" I said. "That is a greater duty of civil engineers than removing tiny plants."
"Perhaps someone stole the plants and sold them" someone said.
"Perhaps" I said. "But these were not very exotic plants that people would buy." Whatever it may be, this time I was totally devastated.
"Now don't plant any more plants there" my wife advised me, watching me grieve for those plants.
I nodded.
