It is just another day in a peaceful town called Kalanagar. Sun is high in the sky heating up the place making it difficult to stay outdoor. Yet there is a significant amount of crowd collected at one point in the town. There is a loud commotion as a young woman stands in front of a large tree. She is shouting at the top of her voice to gather as much audience as possible.
“If you want to cut this tree then you will have to kill me first!” she shouts at the two huge muscular men holding axes (Beirut Ghana and Tomar Hutt).
Those two men with their huge stature and steady gaze make them appear very scary and intimidating. On top of that the woman protesting is at least a foot shorter, skinny woman with long braided hair and is wearing a simple light blue sari. If it comes for her to defend the tree physically, she stands no chance against these brutes. That’s why she is gathering as much crowd as possible.
As scary as these guys might be perceived by this woman, they aren’t doing anything to cast that impression. They are just trying to have a sensible conversation with this crazy woman.
“Listen, we don’t want to harm you.”
“Yes… We are here just to do our job.”
“We don’t live in this town so if we miss the bus at four then we might not be able to return home today.”
“…and we don’t want that. So let us-“
“Then you should not have come.” interrupts, the woman. Quite an interesting scene is developing over here with every passing minute.
This woman standing on guard is Parvati. She is a teacher in a nearby school. She is one of the residents of Kalanagar. As much as it might seem that she is doing it for a good cause, her behavior does not make sense. That’s because Parvati is protecting just this one tree.
Parvati arrived at this place a couple of hours ago. She quietly came and sat under this tree to have her lunch. Meanwhile the two men continued to chop down other trees in this private area. She didn’t seem to be bothered by that. It was only when the men approached this specific tree, Parvati became violent. She even threatened by throwing a rock at them.
Although most of the people living in Kalanagar are acquainted of her existence, none are close enough to talk her out of this madness. She had just a father who passed away a couple of years ago and has no close relatives or friends. So if she has set her mind to something, there is no one to stop her.
With passage of time these two men are getting impatient. Lifting up their axes they try to scare her away. Suddenly a young man jumps in between them,
“Hi, hello guys! stop! what do you want?” he asks.
“Who are you?” asks a guy raising his axe. “Get out of our way.”
“I’m Amar. We can talk this one out… No need to be violent.” says he forcing the axe down.
“Listen, whoever you are…”
“Amar.”
“…yes Amar. We are here to do our job. So make her move so that we can chop this one last tree and leave.”
Parvati is quietly watching this young guy defend her. Although she doesn’t know this guy she let him be on her side. After all, she needs all the help she can get.
“Who ordered you to cut the tree?” Amar asked.
“Boss.”
“Where’s your boss?”
“Inside.” said one of the guys pointing at a bungalow.
“Okay. Let me go and sort this out. Please don’t do anything, okay? I’ll be back in ten minutes.” Amar says.
He turns around, smiles at Parvati and walks away. While Amar tried to convince these tree cutters his confidence seemed shaky. His soiled shirt and trousers hinted to the fact that he was just trying to impress the girl by playing the role of a ‘hero’ in the situation of ‘damsel in distress’.
Parvati doesn’t have any hopes from Amar to return with any positive results but she has no other way to resolve the situation. She is simply wasting time until these guys get fed up and leave.
To Parvati’s surprise, five minutes later Amar returns with the boss.
“Sorry for the inconvenience boys.” says the boss walking to them. He pays them their money saying, “Leave this one…” boss says point at the tree Parvati is sitting under.
Once the tree cutters are gone Parvati walks to the boss and thanks him.
“Thank you sir. Thank you very much.” says Parvati as her eyes fill with tears.
“Don’t thank me. Thank Amar.”
“Thank you Amar.” says Parvati wiping her tears. “I don’t even know you and yet you took my side. Thank you for convincing sir to not cut this tree.”
“Oh no, he didn’t convince me.” interrupts boss, “He bought this place from me.”
This comes as a shock to Parvati. Amar’s physical appearance in no way gave any idea that he is that wealthy but the fact is, he is rich. Amar smiles looking at her and she smiles back. “Amar Pradhan.” he says extending his arm.
“Parvati.”
She extends her arm for a handshake.
The moment lingers as the handshake goes on for longer than it should. Their eyes are locked onto each other until boss, interrupts them saying to Amar, “Should we go finish the paperwork?”
“Yes.” says Amar following him back inside the house.
As they walk away Amar sees Parvati go and hug the tree not caring about the crowd present at the scene. Amar smiles at her innocence and then looking at the boss, he say,
“What’s the deal with her and the tree?”
“No clue.” boss replies.
“Anyway, let’s make a promise shall we. Parvati can never find out that I am the one who gave the order to chop down all the trees. Understood?”
“Why do you care?” asks the boss.
To that Amar confidently replies, “I’m going to marry her some day.”
TO BE CONTINUED
RELATED STORY
What I can do
The reason this woman acted like a crazy person lies in this other story that includes her father.
back to PARVATI PRADHAN – TIMELINE
First of all thank you for reading this post. What you read here is not my absolute belief set in stone. I am always open for discussion and future alterations to the post. Actually I consider these posts as a conversation starter. So if you have an opinion to share, please do comment down below.