Tiger and the Truth-II

Once the great Greek mathematician Euclid, as the legend goes, proffered a coin to one of his pupils and asked him to pack up. Why? It was so, because he dared to ask the teacher, ‘What’s the gain from studying geometry?’ So when I completed today’s bicycle trip into the dense forest of Shimla Catchment Sanctuary [Hasan Valley], I asked the same question to myself, ‘Now, man, what’s your gain at the end of the day?’ I should give myself the list of benefits from the whole thing.

Getting lost in the thickets of a well-preserved jungle: is it not so very pleasing? What else do you want from life? Listen to the sibilant whisper of the coniferous forest, feel its coolness, look to the distant azure horizon, smell the shrubs, feel the music of the trickling streams—what else you want from a mere Sunday?

And what about the flowers? A flower is a flower; it’s not necessary to know its name. So goes the proverb: A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. How true!

 

Agreed, you don’t know its name, and it matters little, but the connoisseur knows it. The butterfly knows where beauty lies, always without doubt.

How dense a forest you want; even denser than this? Ok then, hold on, let me show you another snap, man!

Won’t you like to see the sky? Where all these cedars and oaks are trying to reach? They don’t need a sky-glider; they can reach there by themselves.

 

Even in death, the tree is beautiful; it proclaims its beauty. Only it’s waiting to meet the beholder’s eye.

 

I could not find a tiger. And how do I produce one? Here you are: this is your tiger. Manage it until you get to see a real one.

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By

A N Nanda

Shimla

12-10-2014

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