Travels and the Great Tree

Travels often bring out the best in people. Even the most mundane of daily travels can have a stimulating effect on the mind. For me, it is always the outrageous which plays in my mind while journeying. Lately I was fortunate enough to visit some parts of Madhya Pradesh state’s forest belt. A friend of mine pointed to a big banyan tree and proclaimed it to be over 300-400 years old. This triggered a slew of ideas in my mind. What if by some way, we can make the tree to talk? If by some way, I can just communicate with it.
If it is 300 year old then did the banyan witness the Battle of Plassey from its heights atop the hill? It must have seen the epic battles between the Marathas and Ahmad Shah Abdali. It must have wept with all of us, when Delhi turned red after Nadir Shah’s carnage on the city. Climbing a bit more the top branches might as well have caught a glimpse of America’s freedom struggle or even seen Bismarck’s war cries. So much can be learnt from the tree if I can only talk to her once.
Better even if the tree –lets name it B- is 400 years old. So much information must be stored on every pore of B’s body. She must have witnessed the landing of the first British ships in India. I wonder how B will rate the making of “Jodha Akbar”.
If I can only have a date with the 400 year old Banyan tree! I will extract information not known otherwise, and I shall become famous instantly. More than meager fame, it is the glory of seeing the world from up the Vindhyas for the period of 400 years that makes this the greatest of all journeys.