We were 7~8 year old kids then. There were 2 big Gulmohor (Delonix regia) trees, each on one side of my residential apartment.
We friends while going from our school to the math tuition finding our ways through new adventurous tunnels instead of taking straight road & on our way back to home used to meet these two & hug them tight. We had named them 'tree mom' & 'tree dad' because we loved them.
This continued till we became teen-agers. Then onwards we started smiling & waving at them every day thanking them for being there as they were in our childhood.
Eventually our ways separated for further studies & we couldn't meet them daily as we used to do before. One day, when I returned from college, I saw both of them were cut for I understand no reason. They were not blocking the road. Our chana-chor-garam bhaiyya used to stand under their shed many times. Our peru-wale kaka used to sleep under their shed some times. I still wonder, why did they cut those?
I miss my tree-mom&dad. Now I realise we should have put the notice & rights board on them saying "This tree-mom/dad is our property. No one can cut them without our consent." We were so childish back then, we trusted our adults to understand their importance.
✍🏼 Sonal Thorve
