The Path Less Trodden

The weekend before, Hubby dragged the entire brood to a secret road just behind our estate. A road that was still in the midst of dishevelled construction, where a dense profusion of dark grey shale and gravel lay innocently, ignorant of the fact that they would soon be compressed into hard, cold and unfeeling asphalt soon. A road that penetrated right through the beautiful green meadow that we used to run through with carefree, abandoned spirit, and where many little beasts of the wild used to call home. A road that infiltrated right through the core of nature.

One may not have heard the moans of the large raintrees as they were felled by the ubiquitous foreign workers. Nor the wails of the cut shrubs from the thick foliage that used to be part of a virgin rainforest. But my heart bleeds for the devastated woodland that was annihilated to pave way for vainglorious urbanisation that supposedly made the lives of humans more convenient.

We strolled for almost 2 hours in this long stretch of supposed civilisation, ambling beside the formerly impenetrable frondescent rainforest. We were a captive audience to the myriad bird calls from an orchestra of different birds. We witnessed an explosion of flourishing impermeable antiquated trees - trees that were so sturdy that one is led into the delusion that they are invincible. But we know they are far from indestructible. Under Man's noxious, malignant machines, they are but frail, feeble beings.

We were silenced and awed by the omnipresent dewy existence of living, breathing trees, flowers, grass and shrubs. Elements of nature that were silently, sullenly and oppressively observing our every movement, wary of our next moves. This silence, this tranquil quiescence is precious and sadly temporary. For it would be destroyed like a brittle matchstick the day the road is open, when cars would whiz past, bringing with them sound and air pollution.

But for now, we revelled in the beautiful juxtaposition of laconism and eloquence of nature. So close to us. Savouring the last bit of the unexplored frontier before it is rudely interrupted by noisy urbanisation. Such little pockets of bliss are so rare, yet we are witnessing the destruction of these tenuous spaces gradually but surely in this city we call home.

Resilient mushrooms spouting up against all odds.