The story of the litchi tree

On a lazy afternoon, a seven-year-old boy named Naunidh was walking through the Manali Market, eating litchis. The litchis were a little bit sour, a little bit loaded with juice, a little bit sweet and a little bit bitter. These litchis came all the way from a valley in Srinagar, which is a type of factory. This factory-produced litchis, cherries, and watermelons. However, most people prefer the litchis from this factory.

Here in the Manali hills where Naunidh lived, there were not as many fruits compared to the other hill stations. The soil of the Manali Hills was frigid, and the cold wind here used to stunt all the plants' growth.

Naunidh used to live with his uncle. His uncle was a retired colonel. He had a house somewhere outside the hills. Naunidh was on his way home from his friend's house when he bought the litchis from the market. As he had one rupee left from his pocket money. It took about twenty to twenty-five minutes for him to walk to his house. When he arrived at his house, there were only two litchis left.

'Have a litchi, uncle' he asked as soon as he saw his uncle.

His uncle ate one litchi and Naunidh ate the last litchi left. When he was eating his last litchi, he kept the seed in his mouth for a few minutes, rolling it from right to left, left to right and sometimes he also rolled it on his tongue instead of throwing that seed in the dustbin. Then he placed that seed in his hand and started staring at it. His uncle asked him,

'What happened?'

'Is this seed of any use rather than just throwing?'

'Yes, sure it's.'

'How, uncle?' Naunidh questioned who wanted to know more.

'Just plant it.'

'Plant it?'

'Yes, plant it'

'If I plant it would a tree grow out of this small seed.'

'Yes, Naunidh an enormous tree would grow'.

'Will this seed be lucky, too?'

'O'course'

'How?'

'If you use it, it is lucky but people, just put it away without thinking.'

'I see. But where should I plant it?'

'Don't worry, we have got a load of space in our garden.'

'You are right, uncle.'

So Naunidh found a small spade and began to dig up.

'Hey, not there,' said Uncle. 'I've planted a mango tree there. Plant it in a corner where it won't be disturbed.'

Naunidh went to the left-most corner of the garden where the earth was soft. So, he did not have to dig. He pressed the soil with his index finger and the seed went right in where he wanted to.

Then he had his snacks with tea and ran off to play badminton with his friends. It looked like he had completely forgotten about the litchi tree he planted.

When it was cold in the hills, a cold wind blew down from the snow. In the evening, uncle and Naunidh sat over a charcoal fire, and uncle told Naunidh stories – stories about Jack and the beanstalk, Pinocchio, and Thumbelina, whereas in Naunidh's turn, he would read to him from a magazine which was famous in Manali Hills. Naunidh's uncle had weak eyesight. Naunidh found the magazine hyper-boring, but uncle wanted all the things written in the magazine.

Then spring came and Naunidh had to light up the charcoal every day. Naunidh found a 'N' shaped formation and heard the birds chirping through the thin layer of the mountain air.

One morning, when Naunidh was lighting up the charcoal, he saw a small little tree. It was his litchi tree!!!! He looked over it from each angle. After that, he dashed to his uncle as fast as he could. His uncle was preparing breakfast.

'Uncle, uncle it has come!'.

'What has come?'

'The litchi tree'

'What litchi tree-it can't walk on its own,'

'The litchi tree has grown up.'

'Which litchi tree?' asked the confused uncle, who completely forgot about the litchi tree.

'The tree that we planted last month'.

'Oh! Now I remember'

'Come with me, I will show you'.

Naunidh took his uncle to the litchi tree, and he sat on the ground, whereas his uncle bought a chair and then sat on it. When the uncle realized that he couldn't see it clearly, he bent on his knees and had a look at it. It was a three-inch-tall tree.

'Naunidh now water it to and fro'

'Yes, uncle'

Then Naunidh bought some stones and surrounded the litchi tree with them.

'Why did you put these stones around the litchi tree?' asked the uncle, who wanted to know more.

'I did this so everyone can see that here is a plant, and no one will step over it'.

'You have a good presence of mind'.

'Thank you for the compliment'.

He looked at the tree every morning, but it did not seem to be growing very fast. So, he stopped looking at it. And, after three weeks, when he examined it properly, he discovered that it had grown – at least one and a half inches!

That year the monsoon rains came very early, and Naunidh plodded to and from school in a raincoat. The litchi tree grew quickly in this season. It was about two feet high when a goat entered the garden and ate all the leaves. Only the main stem and one thin branch remained.

'Never mind,' uncle said, seeing that Naunidh was sobbing. 'It will grow again: Litchi trees are strong.'

Towards the end of the rainy season, new leaves appeared on the trees. Then a gardener cutting the grass cut the litchi in two.

When Uncle saw what had happened, he went after the gardener and scolded him, but the damage was irreversible.

'Maybe it will die now,' said Naunidh.

'I think so,' uncle said.

But the litchi tree didn't die. By the time summer came again, it had sent several shoots with tender green leaves. Naunidh had grown taller too. He was nine now, a boy with curly black hair and deep blue eyes. His uncle referred to them as' Blueberry. '

That monsoon, Naunidh went home to his village, to help his family with the planting and ploughing. He was thinner when he came back to his uncle's house at the end of the rain, to find that the litchi tree had grown another foot. It was now up to his nose. Time past like that.

Now, even when it was raining or it was very hot or anything Naunidh would water the tree just to check whether the litchi tree was either alive or not.

One day, a frog came with a bee. They were the first ones who had come to the litchi tree. Next, a butterfly came and sat on the litchi tree. Like that, the litchi tree made a huge number of friends.

Winters came early. It was the time for the snowy season. One day, when Naunidh and his uncle were sleeping, it snowed, and the litchi tree bent low. The path from the hills was blocked, and for a week or two there were no magazines. This made the uncle furious. His stories started to end with no morals.

In April it was Naunidh's birthday and Naunidh was ten and the tree was four. And now they have the same heights.

One day, when his uncle was eating an apple while in the sunlight. He stopped in front of the litchi tree and started taking rounds of it, and then called out, 'Naunidh! Come. Look over here. "Come quickly before it….. '

Before he could complete it, Naunidh asked 'What happened?'

His uncle pointed towards the litchi tree as it performed a miracle. There was a pale red blossom at the end of a branch. The following year there were more blossoms. After that, the tree was taller than Naunidh, despite being less than half his age.

He could run and climb trees as well as most boys, and he read a lot of books-Alice in Wonderland, Black and the Beauty and many more.

In the litchi tree, bees and butterflies came to feed on the nectar in the blossoms, and tiny birds pecked at the blossoms and broke them off. But the tree kept blossoming right through the spring. That summer there were small litchis on the tree. Naunidh tasted one and threw it out of his mouth.

'It's too bitter,' he said.

My Uncle predicted, 'They'll be fine in a month or two.'

On a warm sunny afternoon, when even the bees looked sleepy, Naunidh was looking for his uncle without finding him in any of his favourite places around the house. Then, Naunidh saw him that he was sitting under the litchi tree.

'What are you doing here, uncle?' Naunidh asked him when he reached him.

'This is the best place to have shade, Naunidh'. 'And its leaves are something which I cannot stop looking at'.

'That's true, uncle' 'They're really pretty' said Naunidh.

After his uncle had gone inside, Naunidh climbed the tree and started pondering under the blue sky. Before he could get the answers to his questions, he slept on the tree. He felt so relaxed that he woke up in the evening. Now, whenever he felt alone, he went to the tree and slept over it. Several times, he also used to talk to the tree.

This was the love between a small boy and a litchi tree. If we plant five to six plants in two to three months, we can save our mother Earth.

The End