A gentle giant.

[Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi]

Consider this banyan. The tree’s massive trunk looks like as if hundreds of separate snake-shaped trunks had fused into each other. These are actually the tree’s aerial roots. Also known as prop roots, they grow out from the tree’s branches, going downwards. This particular tree has to be among the Delhi region’s most extraordinary banyans.

To be sure, the megapolis is full of dense ridges and forests, not all of which are easily accessible to citizens. Those unexplored spaces might be harbouring even greater banyans. That said, this banyan is extraordinary in its scope and beauty, and reaching it is easy. The tree stands by the roadside, on Kautilya Marg, beside Jammu & Kashmir House. Its stately view triggers shock-and-awe. The branches are super-long, extending over a good length of the adjacent pave. The same branches are also super-wide, spreading out over the busy road, forming a kind of bowery upon the non-stop traffic. Topping it all, the tree is so dense with leathery leaves that it must be hard for the sunshine to penetrate. This afternoon though, the monsoon sky is overcast with black clouds.

That the tree is truly a chosen one is ascertained by the presence of a little park dedicated to it. The otherwise straight pavement discreetly bifurcates, the minor branch turning into a sideward track, which goes slanting towards the tree. A cement platform is built around the banyan. The ground underneath is currently covered with hundreds of thousands of fallen leaves, withered and brown. This sea of dead leaves is partly littered over with the souvenirs of our stubbornly persistent civic indiscipline: tobacco sachets, aloo chip packs, pink plastics, paper cups, torn receipts, plus a bicycle tire’s flattened rubber tread, a half-eaten double roti, an empty Dettol bottle, etc. A hand-mirror is lying atop the brown leaves, its cracked surface reflecting the green leaves overhead.

The entire area in fact is full of gracious trees. Another remarkable banyan stands in nearby Malcha Marg Market. A few more places in the city to spot noteworthy banyans include a stretch along Teen Murti Marg, a spot near Kalkaji Temple, and a tiraha near St Stephen’s College. In Gurugram railway station, the platform no. 2 has a banyan so huge that more than a dozen folks would have to hold hands to make a circle around its trunk.

Suddenly, a light falling sound is heard, here in Kautilya Marg. It is the rain. The rainwater is finding it unable to crack through the banyan’s solid foliage. This is being a perfect shelter, so far.