It is about 9 a.m.
The south Indian summer sun is already at its fiery best and the sunlight reflecting off the porch and into my room is not helping. I get up from my Sunday newspaper reading to close the door. Once near the door I hear a dull periodic sound. Axe on Wood?
I hurry to the gate and see that I guessed right, the neighboring neem tree being the Wood.
"Stop .. hey! Why are you cutting down the tree? who asked you to? who allowed you to? " I demand the laborer.
"The owners of the land it is standing on. They are going to build a house"
Tough luck neem tree... I don't suppose you have such authority, do you? So who cares if you have been on that land before these owners were even born? Can you prove it? Heck, you can't even protest while being butchered.
"But it is almost at a corner of the plot" I try to reason.
"Yeah .. at the wrong corner, according to Vaastushastra"
No tree = More real estate.
This is the real shastra; probably called Myopic Arthashastra.
It is going to take him the entire day cutting it down for it is no small tree, having spent years growing strong wide branches, dense crown and a hard trunk. Neem trees are noted for their drought resistance. That wont do anymore. They gotta be human resistant.
Just before I sit for lunch, I go out to check on the diligent laborer. He is taking a short post-lunch break in the shade of the partially cut tree.
Is he aware of the irony here?
The title is borrowed from the popular novel/film with the same name
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