The Whispering Tree of Bengaluru
And there launches my first published book on Amazon
Here is my first book. And this is what triggered it.
On a summer afternoon in 2015, I was driving alone by car along the west coast from Mangalore to Goa. As I reveled at the scenery, I suddenly felt something odd. The next minute, the landscape changed as in a mild earthquake. A massive wave of emotion took over forcing me to stop. The street was silent. The tree in front of me was ablaze with something I had never seen before. It beckoned. Every leaf, branch, and trunk lit up with an unimaginable radiance. I was stunned. It was a transformative moment for me.
Trees speak. And this Neem tree, growing up along the Margosa Road in the mid-1950s in Malleshwaram, has a story of her own. She develops a special affection for Balu, a child next door. A wonderful relationship develops between them. Till one day, young Balu leaves the city. She misses the little boy.
Decades later, she narrates her life, their daily battles for survival, an incredible ‘social web’ that keeps the planet alive. And life in old Bengaluru.
What happened to Balu? And to the tree? Did they meet again? What was her life like? What message does she share for humanity?
Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree
Martin Luther
The story of this book came back to my mind repeatedly in parts last year. There are two things that accelerated the compilation and writing. One was a chance reading of some books on forestry. And the discovery of the social web of the plant kingdom (called the ‘wood wide web’). This became a portal to a new world beneath our feet, under the soil.
How nature engineered a social web over 500 million years to become the transport network carrying minerals and messages to family and friends of the plant kingdom became a mystery. A network that is so sophisticated and complex that it can put our modern net web-scale server farms and transport protocols to shame.
The creation of a thousand forests is in one action
Ralph Waldo Emerson
The second trigger was of course the pandemic. Locked down and forced to push the ‘pause’ key of life, generated an organized stream of thoughts that aligned into this book.
It is now available on Kindle and Amazon. Do share your thoughts and comments on the book at stpai2001@gmail.com. If you like the book do share it with your friends.
About the Author: Sridhar covers tech, start-ups, marketing, and shares musings on life. Twitter: Sridhar Pai Tonse
