With the exodus of people to the Middle East countries in search of greener pastures for earning a better livelihood, the entire village was steadily transforming from once picturesque village lined with lush green trees into a concrete jungle now only lined with gated residences deliberately adorned with exotic tiles and nonessential embellishments. These multistoried houses stood like sentinels devoid of any emotions, as if competing with others and looking condescendingly at those determined to not change rather stay relevant by staying grounded. However, the number of such houses was rapidly declining with time.
One of such houses belonged to a retired school teacher. The retired Maths teacher lived in his simple house along with his wife, a few cats with black and white spots, birds that enjoyed chirping happily day in and day out, frogs, among others. Unlike other houses in the neighbourhood, this house was surrounded by a dense vegetation of wild plants. The house was simple yet unique as these trees and plants shadowed it from everyone. The teacher was raised on the socialist values and principles and hence enjoyed growing his own plants. The tall coconut and jackfruit trees guarded the house from those evil-eyed sentinels around. Whenever his neighbours returned from Dubai, Qatar, Australia and other places, they would condescendingly advise him to chope off jackfruit trees as their fallen dried leaves posed a maintenance issue for them. People complained that they were tired of sweeping these leaves every morning and night. Despite innumerable complaints, the teacher was determined to never cut his trees. As a result, some embarrassed him, some ostracized him and some rebuked him. At the end, they collectively complained the local authority about the problems posed by the jackfruit trees. The local authority members came the very next day to the teacher’s house and tried intimidating him by threatening him of legal action. Interestingly, the teacher even then stood to his own grounds.
He was adamant to not live life on terms of others and was prepared to face any consequence. This matter remained the talk of the village. When the entire country was locked down due to coronavirus, the villagers were not able to purchase vegetables transported from other states. The villagers had never imagined that they would have to live to see such scary and unimaginable times. They were forced to survive on essentials like rice and pulses. With not a single vegetable dish on their table, like earlier times, they tried all means within their reach to add ome greens in their diet. They were forced to stare at their stupid box for the next update on the never-ending lockdown despite having money to purchase things. But the lockdown continued and shops as usual remained shut without any further details. Meanwhile, the teacher hardly felt the pinch of lockdown. He used jackfruits and hardly ventured out of his house. The neighbors out of desperation called upon him to share some of his jackfruits and coconuts. They sincerely thanked him for not succumbing to their rebukes and threats to cut jackfruit trees.
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