It's amazing how the patterns of the cosmos show up in the microcosm. The big banyan was a tree of life. One could never tell where exactly did it begin, the root branch of the tree had long vanished in the early part of the its life which has seen 400 years go by.
Now it was just a dozen or more of main branches distant from each other. Each of them was bundle of dozen or so closely related branches held together by the need of support and security. One couldn't tell if all the different distant branches stemmed from the same tree at a quick glance unless one looked closely at the overhead branches and the roots under the ground that connected them.
The pack of monkeys that lived on the tree seemed to know the overhead connections much better than a cursory onlooker. But they too had divided the tree into territories among themselves. The adults even fought with any outsiders wandering into their territory, while they tended to their young ones who would one day divide the tree further. It was easy to tell we have evolved from monkeys, one could imagine the evolution of war, nations and man in general looking at those monkeys and the tree.
Being hungry and anxious of the traffic back we pondered over heading back. On the way back there was yet another naughty monkey who had stolen a bag of pineapples. It didn't know what to do with so much of it so it tasted a little of each piece in the bag and threw the rest. Good that a bigger monkey saw this lavishness and drove it away to claim the booty.
We too didn't quite know what to do at that place any longer. Although it was a beautiful sight, we had gotten used to it. Some drunkards around the corner made our decision of leaving easier.
Now it was just a dozen or more of main branches distant from each other. Each of them was bundle of dozen or so closely related branches held together by the need of support and security. One couldn't tell if all the different distant branches stemmed from the same tree at a quick glance unless one looked closely at the overhead branches and the roots under the ground that connected them.
The pack of monkeys that lived on the tree seemed to know the overhead connections much better than a cursory onlooker. But they too had divided the tree into territories among themselves. The adults even fought with any outsiders wandering into their territory, while they tended to their young ones who would one day divide the tree further. It was easy to tell we have evolved from monkeys, one could imagine the evolution of war, nations and man in general looking at those monkeys and the tree.
Being hungry and anxious of the traffic back we pondered over heading back. On the way back there was yet another naughty monkey who had stolen a bag of pineapples. It didn't know what to do with so much of it so it tasted a little of each piece in the bag and threw the rest. Good that a bigger monkey saw this lavishness and drove it away to claim the booty.
We too didn't quite know what to do at that place any longer. Although it was a beautiful sight, we had gotten used to it. Some drunkards around the corner made our decision of leaving easier.
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