The Palm Tree of the Humans That We Have!

Have you read Alice in Wonderland in recent years as an adult? I could not understand why do they even try to pass this book as children's literature, when a few months ago I read this exchange between Alice and the Cheshire cat: 

Alice: Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here? 

The Cheshire Cat: That depends a good deal on where you want to get to... 

Alice: I don't much care where. 

The Cheshire Cat: Then it doesn't much matter which way you go.

I had to literally close the book and sit thinking for a long time!

I am sure while clicking this you had thought it to be one of the strangest of the titles for a blog. Is that even English?! Then you notice mention of Alice at the onset and feel "Aah! now I know what she means!" That familiar feeling is so important! However much as we try to put ourselves as the curious Alice out there, all we are looking for in everything new is what we know! That brings me to children. As there is no one more okay with the unknown, than a child. 

And you know what? I am almost sure there is nothing called Children's Literature! Yeah yeah! Here I go again! This got even more strengthened in my mind as I read and re-read poems and stories that were shared with us as children's books and poems. 

Today however, I want to talk about Rabindranath's poem Taalgachh (তালগাছ) or The Palm Tree, and like many other poems that were taught to us in Primary section of the school, this poem

From Google

also came to me with a whole different meaning when I started thinking about it a few days ago. The poem is about the a Palm Tree, which is fixed at its own place on one of its legs. The analogy will quickly remind you of a boy facing punishment in Indian schools, who is asked to stand on one leg. However, even in those very uncomfortable position some children look up and dream. The poet thought about what the Palm Tree must had been dreaming about? As it was already taller than most trees around it, what did it think about? Was it day-dreaming about flying off to the sky? 

This is exactly where my mind started finding an analogy to the upper middle class Indians! How? Well! Have you not heard them talking incessantly about how "stuck" they feel? Just like that Palm Tree in the poem. And they feel as strange, as lonely, as misplaced. Palm trees do have a point. If you think that they are from as diverse places as the Caribbean, Mexico, as well as Chatham Islands and highlands of Southern Asia, they can feel misplaced, practically anywhere! So can our incessantly complaining Upper Middle Class Indians, even without being from such diverse locales. When you read: সারাদিন ঝরঝর থত্থর /কাঁপে পাতা-পত্তর (सारादिन झरझर थर-थर , काँपे पाता पत्तोर ....the whole day all its leaves move, shake, tremble non-stop!), you almost think Tagore stood in the tea-stalls along with the office group that get together to support each other to go through this "pain" called office. They discuss their desire to fly off at the first chance so earnestly that you may make a mistake to think they are actually looking for a way to fly, much like the Palm Tree in this poem. You will be surprised to be back to the same tea-stall after 5 years and find them there. They are "stuck" you see!

Leaving the gangs at the tea-stalls alone for some time, let us return to the poem and the dream, err, day-dream of the Palm Tree. The poem says: "ওড়ে যেন ভাবে ও/ মনে মনে আকাশেতে বেড়িয়ে/ তারাদের এড়িয়ে/যেন কোথা যাবে ও।" (ओडे जैनो भाबे ओ/ मोने मोने आकाशेते बेड़िये/ तारादेर एड़िये / जेनो कोथा जाबे ओ ....In his mind he is actually flying, in its heart it goes up to the sky!  Goes past the stars! As if, he really has a destination!) Have you met these people in real life? They tell you their dreams of flying. Their dreams of becoming "গৃহত্যাগী" (गृहत्यागी) ..leaving the family behind and be this "মুক্তপুরুষ" (मुक्तपुरुष) the real free man with nothing to pull him back. They go on and on about how they feel stuck much like the Palm Tree and how they could do so much more had they been flying around instead.  This flying has various components. I have met men who feel caged by love, emotional bond. I have met both men and women who feel caged by family responsibilities and children. It is another thing that I have seen the same men leaving government jobs when they felt it was hurting their "ego" to continue without a thought of school and college going children but that did not stop them from talking about how "fixated" they felt still and how they longed for "freedom of flying off". Much like the Palm Tree they try to make you believe that they have a greater purpose in life which they would have definitely fulfilled had they not been bound by the "situation". And they are passionate in talking about their pain of being stuck, in the job, in the family, in a relationship. They have expressed again and again the need, but the urgency with which they have held on to the bank, has always confused me about their intention of ever really sailing. I guess it is like the Palm Tree when the wind is gone... তার পরে হাওয়া যেই নেমে যায় / পাতা কাঁপা থেমে যায়/ফেরে তার মনটি/ভালো লাগে আরবার/পৃথিবীর কোণটি। (तारपोरे हाओया जेई नेमे जाय / पाता काँपा थेमे जाय / फेरे तार मोनटी / भालो लागे आरबार पृथिबीर कोनटी ...Then the wind stops/ and the shivering, the agitation goes away/ the heart also returns to the ground/ and he loves his bank/his corner once again!)

That is what happens. Again and again! Every other afternoon. During some session of day dreaming. It is then that one goes all around the sky in his/her heart, tells everyone he wants to, agitate a few others in the process, finds out how scary it is to leave all that you have always known, and then he/she gets back to the corner and be satisfied with it till the time there is another wind that peaks up! 

"It is absolutely like our dear old Palm Tree", smiles Alice. 

"Only the person is not really bound like it, you see!", says the Cheshire Cat.

From Google