It is difficult to love your neighbour and it is more difficult to love your neighbour’s trees that extend their branches into your land. Our neighbour’s behaviour bears testimony to this intractable problem. Let me call this neighbour Mr. Vex. Our small house is surrounded by a variety of trees. These include an almond tree that stands close to the compound wall, dropping its copper-color ripe leaves and pink fruits liberally on our neighbour’s land; a mango tree that reaches out to the first floor window of our neighbour’s house, holding a bunch of baby mangoes in its branch-hand; a teak that sheds big plate-like leaves on our fuming neighbour’s garden; and a magnanimous guava that lovingly showers its red hearted fruits for the unfeeling fellow.
My grandfather used to call tree leaves that fall on our heads blessings from the Lord.
But Mr. Vex is made of different stuff. He guards his borders assiduously like a BSF jawan. He won’t let a butterfly cross over to his side from ours and flirt with the flowers of his solitary hibiscus. He won’t let his wife feed the crow that lives in the nest in one of our trees. He won’t even allow our cat Yellow to walk on the compound wall. Our trees evoke in him a special dislike that he openly displays on his face. Instead of thanking our almond and mango trees for the cool shade they bathe his house in, he detests them with all his heart.
He had a special complaint against our innocent curry-leaves tree, whose small, ball-bearing-like black fruits are relished by cuckoos. These cuckoos frequently come to eat these fruits and call loudly to proclaim their presence. This drives our ‘peace loving’ Mr. Vex mad. One early morning I happened to observe him as he furtively emptied into our side, over the compound wall, a basket full of leaves shed on his side by our trees. Along with the trash of his house.
When I went down and questioned him, he flew into uncontrolled anger. “You better cut the branches of your wretched trees. They rub against my air conditioners and spoil them. They shed their leaves all over my place. They attract birds. Come and see their droppings on my car. If you don’t cut the branches of your trees I will cut their trunks myself,” he burst like a string of crackers. His impolite words and the expression on his face shocked me. Love thy neighbour, says the Bible. Perhaps it should have added that one should love thy neighbour’s trees too.