Rooted Folks....

My young friend, Nanki Nath, from Jaipur, studied at the the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, and is currently a doctoral student at the Industrial Design Centre, at the Indian Institute of Technology, Powai (Mumbai). She is also a blogger, and blogs at , what else, Nankinath  

The campus where she studies  (and where I live) , is 400 acres of virgin land on the shores of the Powai lake, where parts have been landscaped and organized amidst structures dedicated to educating  the country's young.

Wooded areas, mowed lawns, folks with laptops and wires in ears, cattle moving around thinking of safety in numbers, shorts, tees, heads covered with saree palloos, kids on bicycles, walking to school kicking pebbles and sticks around, we have them all.  Sometimes with a leopard thrown in for variety.

And it just came to mind, that this capture of a tree, from her office, really tells it like it is .....

(photo by Nanki Nath of IDC)

Designer trees
one of a kind,
posing
standing,
all pervading
amidst a
straggly lawn
shying away
to the edges,
starved of resources,
hogged by this
unique leafless entity,
looking down in wonder
at its shadow roots
just below the surface.....

It takes
an old mother tree,
aging graciously,
remembering its life,
a tree resplendent in leaves
crowded and green,
communicating ,
holding in its womb,
birds,
nests,
and squirrels,
to grow roots so deep,
that they spread
deep inside the earth,
nudging
a rock here,
a spring there,
chatting by a water table,
telling everyone
about those
who sat in its shade....

And a 1st year M Des***,
nudges a 2nd yearite,
and asks,
"Should we move those benches elsewhere now ?"


*** M Des : Master of Design,  the first degree offered in Design, a  2 year course.