Mon, 29 Apr, 2024

A Sad Day

By Nikita Gautam

  It was a gloomy day; none of us were in fact in a mood of studying. Statistics! Uh, it was boring. Each and every one of us was busy in our own world when I heard someone talking. Strange voice I said to myself. Well, the class was over then, everyone was leaving. I was packing my bag, and I heard it again. I was beginning to leave and suddenly it struck again. I was projecting my ears towards the voice. I went near to it and found the most surprising thing in the whole world. That strange noise was made by two monkeys. A monkey talking in English, wow that was something no one would ever imagine. First one seemed a bit healthier than the other one. They looked upset and into the topic that they were discussing about. The first one started off the conversation, "Oh!  I feel so pity on us. Gone are those days when we used to play around them.  Gone are those precious moments.” The second monkey then seemed so depressed, and then he said, “How many times should we face the same situation. Fragmentation and habitat loss compelled us to move from forest to this city, with cruel people around everywhere chasing us. They seem not to realize that they are our descendants, but yet they have compelled us to become scary animals. Swinging in the branches of the tree, silently watching people pass by the gate was so much fun. Do you remember the day when we had this banana fight and suddenly a student of DWIT started screaming? He was horrified watching us back then. Those days are really going to become our precious memories. The first monkey replied "Yes, Obviously. That day when I entered into the room of the Campus Chief, he really didn’t react seeing me. I then was happy in a way because there are barely few people who wouldn’t react in our presence. The second monkey said, “How in the world can I forget those juicy and fleshy fruits that grew on the trees? Those trees were our companions and our home. I am definitely going to miss them a lot." “Why cut down these trees? How can they destroy? This is such an irrational decision", said the first monkey in a frustrating tone. “They’re dumb. I've seen them smoke, dust of nicotine, and they prefer themselves to be smart enough to get rid of us? No way, that can't be possible", said the second monkey with this weird chattering. "Look how cruel it seems to chop off those innocent trees. What mistake have they made to get punished in this manner? I feel bad sorry for them, but moreover bad about us. Decline of biodiversity is ultimately going to affect them. This is an environmental stressor in a way for us. These people aren’t aware of what they are doing", said the first monkey. "How are we going to manage our playground elsewhere? Only by painting new colors, dressing so smartly, adding new blocks to the building will never be enough for them to replace these trees.  Let’s see for how long they will carry on with it. How long will they destroy our homes, our companion, our fun and our lives?” The second monkey cried. The first monkey then followed the conversation by adding up, "Yes, I agree they have been in loss because of us in a sense, but that can't just be a reason to take such a decision. I've heard them talking about this tree issue a while ago, back then they said that the roots of these trees have become a threat to the building. They might have made cracks surrounding it. Oh please, we're animals, but we're not so foolish to not know what the actual reason is for doing so. Maybe Deerwalk is filled with brainy engineers, tall buildings, basketball court, and healthy kitchen but doesn’t it look so barren?  Where can you see the beauty of nature in its premises? Where can you see the fun?" Second monkey then said," Well they have only lost some trees. But we have lost our home. Coming to Deerwalk will never be the same." Then the first monkey in a loud voice said, "Now where in the world are we going to play, where are we going to hide ourselves from cruel natural calamities, where are we going to live, where are we going to enjoy our sun bath and the mesmerizing shade?  It's all over. Only because of Deerwalk, we are orphan without our trees." They were so downhearted. I had never felt so bad about monkeys till that day. One of them started the conversation after a minute of silence. “Well, we have no control over the situation now. All we can do is think about how we can now adjust ourselves in this situation. We need to develop new strategy to trouble these people who have troubled us. Now we must cope up with this new environment and although we have lost our best mate, our trees, but we should learn how to adjust now." Second monkey said, “Yes, indeed we should.  Though these people might be thinking that they have made a pretty good change by cutting these trees, they are yet to realize what they have done. Let’s move now, our children might have been waiting for food. For now we have nothing left here, we should go somewhere else." I think they used trees as tools for climbing upstairs but now they are not able to do so. I found them struggling to reach the ground. It isn’t necessary that whose fault it was or is, but we never tend to think what impacts our decisions make in the society, the creatures and ultimately to ourselves. "If I were a tree, I would have no reason to love a human.”