The Tree (Story)

“Oh no not again!” exclaimed Nagamma. It was her daily ritual to look at the old banyan tree in the courtyard of the village’s primary health center and mutter under her breath, “Look at your heap of rubbish on the ground!  I have to spend the entire day to clean all this!” Wielding a broom stick she would wrap her saree’s pallu around her waist and would begin sweeping the dry leaves of the banyan tree strewn in the courtyard. 

Nagamma, a young widow from the village, was hired by the doctor on duty at the primary health center to clean the courtyard. There was an old banyan tree in the courtyard with few cement benches beneath the tree for the patients and their companions. Each morning, Nagamma would open the gates of the primary health center to clean the courtyard and the garbage bins.

When one of the visitors to the center found Nagamma grumbling about the leaves shed by the tree, chuckled and suggested, “Sister, why don’t you ask the doctor to tie a net around the branches of the tree to stop the leaves from falling on the ground.” Nagamma grimaced and continued with her work.

It was a cold winter morning, when Nagamma reached the center’s gate, she found the doctor waiting for her. He greeted her and said, “Nagamma, your service is needed for fifteen days because we have decided to cut down the banyan tree and construct an extension of the center in the courtyard. Don’t worry we will pay you for the fifteen days that you will work here at the center.”….