The Constant Gardener

Somewhere in the mid-nineties.
I tugged at my Mother's sari from behind and won away her attention from work to ask her,"Mother,that tree by the road that runs by the house,it is so magnificently huge.How many years old is it?Was it always so big and sturdy?"
"No,she was a little sapling once.Innocuously delicate and serene,she was brought here by one swarthy gardener who planted her there whence she grows out today.She was then only slightly taller than you.The gardener lovingly tended her.He watered her gently with a sprinkler,manured her and carefully examined her for any diseased leaf or fruit.He did this for many years continuously.After that,the gardener left and the young tree was left alone to face worldly storms.She was quite prepared though.During the first patch of singeing summer,she extended her roots to the other end of the road.With the onset of the monsoons,a hurricane ripped away one of her canonical branches.The wound healed and she grew a new branch.She was home to a wide variety of animals ,from woodpeckers to sparrows.A poison ivy still lives off her.Many years passed and she grew taller and stronger.The canopy of her leaves became so dense that sun rays could scarcely pierce it,and so you had the most impregnably cool shade even during the hottest of the days."
"What happened to the gardener?Where is he?Is he still around?"
"No,he went on to plant many other saplings here in our neighbourhood."
"All of them are big trees,now,aren't they?"
"Not all of them,really.Some couldn't rise to their fullest height,some were trampled by a cowherd,a few got damaged by harsh gusts of wind and still some were stolen,but,that does not matter,many grew up to become the beautiful trees which line our roads today."
"So,is the tree secretly aware that it was once a puny sapling?"
"I don't know I have never thought of enquiring but I think she is.That is why,perhaps,inspite of being so gigantic and powerful,it is so gently humble,providing incessant shade and shelter to all beneath it."
"Yeah,must be"

I was back at school for the foundation day ceremony.The anecdote above(written in a train compartment) is a little tribute to what my teachers have done for me when I was totally in oblivion of my own education.