Our Tamarind Tree

One of the big highlights of our school, is the tall and huge Tamarind Tree in the middle of our campus...
Though our campus was originally designed to face the main road, and we were advised by many that we should cut it down, our management decided to change the the way our building was positioned rather than cut this hundred year old symbol of strength, character and dignity.

Our Big, Tall And Deeply Rooted Tamarind Tree 

I was thinking of this, and on a lark, I decided to do a search on Google to see if I could find any literary work on a Tamarind tree and to my pleasant surprise I found this poem that I am posting below. 

The Trunk Of Our Tamarind Tree

The Tamarind Tree

Deepak Menon

When the world was young and gay

And bluebirds sang songs of love

A traveler along his merry way

Saw clouds gathering above

Surprised was he at this strange sight

For in those days it never rained

And when the clouds dimmed the light

He felt his cheery spirits drained

Looking around in that vast expanse

Where only lived the wind roaming free

He suddenly espied, what at a glance

appeared to be a tree

How glad was he at the sight

His heart could not express

He hurried to it through fading light

Unable his joy to suppress

Finally he reached the solitary tree

As the heavens their tears shed

And crouched there fearfully

Arms covering his head

  

By and by as he calmed down

Wonder filled his soul

For he was dry from toe to crown

The tree had played its role

And suddenly the clouds had gone

He looked at his new found friend

A Friend of Friends, of envy shorn

From beginning to the end

It was a just a little Tamarind Tree

Alone in the vast wide plain

Whose role was just there to be

To give shelter from the rain

And all his life he never forgot

That wondrous Tamarind Tree

And all his life he always sought

Just like it, to Be!

Deepak Menon

Our Tree House On Our Tamarind Tree

I want to express my gratitude to Mr. Deepak Menon for permitting me to use his poem on our blog and I also hope, as Mrs. Ratnalekha Shetty our Principal constantly reminds, we learn from the Tamarind tree to not only grow bigger and taller but also deeper too...!!!