Muffins over the window!!

Wondering what the title of the post means?? Just read through...

It was in the Spring of 2009 that we shifted to this apartment. Thank God, till this day, we are quite content with our apartment. Our little flat is cozy, bright and just enough for the two of us. Above evreything, I love it for the serenity of the locality and the green sorroundings.

In front of the building, the carparking space is studded with trees and they are the ones which add beauty to the apartment, keep the air fresh and in summer lend the much needed coolness. Living on the second floor, we used to enjoy the greenery through our windows. In autumn, the bright colours would be vibrant. In winter, though the trees had shed their leaves long ago, some fruits would still be hanging on to the branches. On snow fall, a little shot of snow would be deposited above each of these fruits which gives it a muffin(with frosting) like appearance. Yeah... do you get the meaning of the title now?? I used to observe this on every snow fall and my heart rejoices at the sight of it. Unfortunately, not all good things last forever, I guess.

Last week, suddenly they put on a notice that they have planned to fell the trees. I have no idea, what the house administration tries to achieve by felling these harmless trees. There is no information about that. On talking to one of our neighbours, we got to know the following: we cannot do antything about this now. But, in Germany, there is a rule that, for every tree that is cut, must a tree be planted. Sounds good, eh? Yes. Here, you can plant any tree as you wish. But, if you plan to cut it down, you must first get permission from the state, promising that you would plant another tree somewhere sometime. So, our neighbour added that, the admin has planned to get some thinner trees sometime during autumn this year.

Two days back, they started work when I was leaving for work. It took the workers hardly ten minutes for cutting one tree into pieces. Their main work is to collect the woods in a wagon and clear the place. When I returned home, it appeared as if nothing has happened and there is a vast emptiness now.

This brings back a childhood memory to me. Once when we were living as tenants in a small town, the houseowners had a cow. She was called Laxmi and I used to play with her, feed her grass and straw. She was also fond of me. One day, they had sold her away and I cried the whole night. I could relate it to this situation. Though I've grown up now and I don't cry, I somehow feel sad for those trees.The smell of raw wood is still lingering... I hope and pray that they really plant some trees as soon as possible and bring back the greenery to our apartment. Just wanted to write in their memory :-)