Diary of a Neem – Part III

The body of the hapless animal lay there for two days without anybody taking any interest. As soon as they saw it, they turned their heads away. Slowly the body began to decompose and the foul smell began to spread. Even then they just didn’t care. I was surprised at the indifference of men. As days passed, the foul smell spread stronger and farther. It even reached the nearby housing society apartments. The park had nearly hundred societies on its sides. The only thing the occupants did was to close the doors and windows facing the park. They didn’t, however, forget to curse the dead animal. They were upset that the dog found only this place to die!

Everybody wanted somebody else to do something but nobody did anything. Not even one of them thought of undertaking the task himself. By now I have studied men. I have been listening to their talks while they walked. They think we cannot hear or understand them. Each one of them blames others for every wrong thing. I have not heard even one of them telling, ‘I must do’, ‘I must have done’, or I did a mistake’. No one thought of digging a small pit and burying the decomposed body, at least for their own sake, if not for the dead animal’s sake. They could close the doors and windows, stop coming near the body of the dog during walking, turn their faces in disgust, close their noses with fingers, curse the unfortunate animal, or blame other men. They could do everything, but could not dig a pit to bury the body!

Then the rains came. The whole area was flooded. The decomposed body of the poor animal was covered with rainwater. Small pieces disintegrated and spread all over the place through the water. Water helped the body to disintegrate faster. When the rains stopped and water receded, the body was full of small insects which feasted on it. The foul smell spread far and wide and still nobody thought of burying it, or doing anything at all.

It was during those days that again some workers arrived. They began to dig up the whole place for erecting electric polls and spreading wires for installing lights along the walkway. When they came near me to work, the foul smell was so unbearable to them that one of them dug a small pit and buried whatever remained of the body and put a heap of soil over it. While digging the pit, they even cut a few of my roots. Though it was physically painful I was mentally relieved a lot. At last, about 10 days after he was brutally tortured and killed, the dog was buried. I heaved a sigh of relief. The disgusting foul smell remained in the air for a few more days, as a reminder of what had happened. 

The painful memories will remain with me till the day I too fall down, uprooted and dead. I can see in my mind several men wrenching my tiny branches to prepare four inch pieces for them to clean their teeth. But none of them would even bother to realize that the very same pieces could contain liquefied parts of the blood and meat and every possible part of the dead dog which I could draw through my roots and spread along the branches.

I only hope and plead and beg to human kind to show some respect to your society which includes not only the page 3 or the front page dignitaries or your own kith and kin but also the animals and plants without the existence of which you will be a big zero. Think of the day when no plant or animal exist in this world, but only humans! I earnestly hope that if not today, tomorrow ... at least tomorrow ... will be the day when we non-humans get some respect and consideration from you. I also hope and expect that you will admit the right of plants and animals to cohabit along with you super creatures.

[Concluded]