IT`S difficult to imagine life without trees. And yet people in contemporary age have learnt to live without them. With an exponential increase in the population, space especially in cities and conurbations has become something very precious and the most sought after.

Space you occupy implies that it can generate a source of income for you or it can provide you a secure shelter, which would put you in a better physical and psychological state to create your means of survival.

The movers and shakers of modern world staunchly believe that space yielded to trees in the urban centres is space wasted or space denied to potential buyers. Loss of potential buyers is subsequently conceived as an economic loss, which can slow down the grinding machine of capital, the raison detre of contemporary life. But we all know that a tree as a metaphor of nature affirms that planet welive on is not only not dead but also supports life and its regeneration.

Tree, after all, helps sustain multiple forms of life by supporting insects, animals, birds and humans in some way. But the realisation of how vital a tree is for human life comes only when humans feel asphyxiated in their, what poet Brecht calls, `tall boxes`. Surprisingly, our elders despite their scant scientific knowledge had better understanding of what a tree was and how it affected life.

The reason was they experienced it more as something living deeply connected with the cyclical process of nature rather than a mere object of study.

Punjab, our homeland, had been abundantly gifted with trees since time immemorial.

Mahabharata calls it a land `where there are Pilu-forests`.

Pilu trees continued to provide shade as well as fruit as late as the twentieth century.

Baba Farid, the pioneer of Punjab`s contemporary literary tradition, sees in trees divinepresence while another man takes them as timber to be felled, sold and consumed.

`Blacksmith at the forest`s head, sharp axe on his shoulder/ O Farid I`m hungry for my Lord, burning coals you hunger,` goes the couplet. In another couplet, he paints tree as an epitome of persever ance.`O Farid, do the Lord`s servitude, get your heart out of maze / let`s search out dervishes, with a tree`s resolute ways`. I n yet another couplet, he uses tree as a metaphor for perennial human predicament, which is an unrelenting source of anguish and angst. `On the bank a tree, till when can it hold true / O Farid, in unbaked pitcher, water till when can we accrue` (translation by Muzaf far Ghaffar).

In our lore, tree is considered a receptacle of divinity. Hence damaging or defiling it is a sinful act. That`s why not in the distant past, young people in the countryside were strictly advised not to pee or defecate under a tree.

Thattrees are sacredin the subcontinental religious tradition is not a secret. Pipal/Bodhi is a highly worshipped tree as it`ssacred to Buddhists and also to Hindus who believe it represents the trinity (Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva). Among other sacred trees are Banyan, Ashoka, Bael, coconut, Nim, mango and banana.

In Semitic tradition, the story of the `burning bush` is wellknown.

`Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to Moreb, the mountain of the God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fires from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire but it did not burn up`, says the Bible. Seers and saints always sang of trees.

`In Chet agreeable is the spring / the burnble bee is pleasing / in the Bar the forests are flowering...

says Baba Guru Nanak.

Now the question is if we have been a tree loving people what did go wrong that our present generation lost touch with nature that guarantees our existence on this planet.It`s at best indifferent to trees and at worst averse to them.

What is left of our love for leafy shrubs and shade is a ring of distortion to it. As the fascination of imported trees has become an obsession with us that borders on psychotic disorder.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with loving alien trees. It becomes a problem when they are touted as a symbol of baseless cultural superiority by our thoroughly bankrupt elite, which is horribly alienated from its soil and the botanical richness it offers. Alien trees lining our streets and boulevards are a sorry sight; planted in a foreign soil they fail to grow the way they grow in their natural environment. They, being mostly from cold climes offer neither the shade to our people nor the shelter to our birds. The smell of some of them even scares our birds away. Discarding indigenous trees means damaging already fragile local ecology. No remedy for the malady we suf fer from is likely to be effective unless we revisit our notion ofprogress. Is producing more babies going to end our woes? Does quality matter or number? Will unbridled lust for possession and consumption prompted by unchecked market forces secure us a future where we could live at peace with ourselves and our environment? Greed driven process that destroys everything in its way other than what yields profit would never create conditions for regeneration of any kind. So the response to the mess we live surrounded by would be to do one`s bit keeping in view the humanistic ideals of aiming at the good of all.

Monsoon is already upon us.

We had the first rain of monsoon on the first of the month of Sawan, which was plentiful and invigorating. So girdle for the task ahead. Plant some saplings in your green patch and along the street. A sapling planted in Sawan needs little follow-up care and usually doesn`t wither or die.

Next Sawan you may see some small bird in its top fluttering like a dream of a new dawn. soofi01@hotmail.com