i was very tired at five today. i had a fever, it was a stressful day at work and my one only friend in the new office hadn't come in. at five, i had my first break for a smoke. i came downstairs, took my usual position behind the potted plants, and had that weary drag evading the steady glare from the sardarji auto-part shop owner across the street. it seems, he doesn't mind other women smoking. but i get the full blast of his disapproving glare. or maybe, he just plain doesn't like me.

anyway, tired, irritated and feeling decidedly run-down, i happened to look up from the busy street, shop fronts and chaos. i saw a banyan tree. not a particularly impressive one, but its leaves were shiny green. how i don't know. it hadn't rained any in the past few days. then i looked at it closely, there were little clusters of red fruits. also gleaming, to the extent fruits in a banyan tree can gleam. i remembered a story from a long ago childhood favourite. the usual ingredients of a wicked step-mother and a little goat-herd boy and some pathos were obviously present in it. but the star of the story was a banyan tree. it had befriended the boy. when the step mother couldn't kill the boy, she turned her wrath towards his friend. she made all its fruits bitter. but in the stories , the noble and the virtuous always win. the tree managed to save its friend and because it was so noble, its other friends- the birds refused to leave it. and that's why till this day, banyan trees are the first place where birds nest and people seek refuge.

i felt so much better afterwards.