Once upon a time, there was a seed and because it was only a seed, nobody cared to notice it. Thus, gripped by a sense of inferiority, the seed gave no importance to his existence.

Then one day, a wind picked him up – randomly or otherwise he didn’t know – and threw him mercilessly on an open field under the sweltering sun. He was confused. Why would anything do such a thing? But instead of any copasetic answers, he was provided with rain (in addition to sunlight), sometimes in drizzles and sometimes in torrents.

Meanwhile time flew and years later he saw a traveler sitting by his side.

“Thank you God for this. I really needed some rest,” he heard the traveler say.

“What are you talking about?” The seed promptly asked.

He thought the man was making fun of him. Sure, he had witnessed many people sitting by his side – more so in recent years – but no one ever spoke to him like that.

“Who is this?” The man was startled.

“This is me. The seed.”

“The seed?” The man looked at the giant tree.

“Are you kidding me? You are no seed. You are a tree. A goliath of a tree!”

“Really?”

“Yes! Why else do you think people come here?”

“What do they come here for anyways?”

“To feel your shade! Don’t tell me you didn’t know you had grown over time.”

A moment passed before the traveler’s words struck the chord of realization within him.

The seed, now a prolix tree, thought and smiled for the first time in his life. The years of relentless tortures by the sun and the rain finally made sense to him.

“Oh! That means I’m not a tiny-flimsy seed anymore! I wasn’t destined to die unnoticed but was actually born to strip people of their lassitude. Wow! Now that’s a life worth a thousand gems!”
– Novoneel Chakraborty
copyright 2008

Melanie Hack
Author of Who Killed My Sister, My friend
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