Fieldnotes

If You Allow Them

01 May 2026

Trees can grow up to be really large if you allow them. The kind of trees I draw are these gigantic, grand old trees. Trees with trunks as wide as a Syntex tank and taller than a four-storey building. I see trees like these only in old campuses and botanical gardens. These are not the kind of trees most people encounter in their everyday lives.

Most trees near my building are barely twenty years old. They were planted when the BDA planned the layouts.

This makes me wonder, if and when I have my own home and plant saplings of my favorite trees around it, will I live long enough for the trees to grow into majestic beings?

rain tree as seen from the balcony of the second floor of a building
Tree (probably rain tree) outside my aunt's house. Bangalore, October 2021.
peepal tree with stone benches around it
Young peepal outside the hostel of a school I studied in. Bangalore, July 2023.
bougainvillea draped over the branches of a large tree
Outside somebody's house. Bangalore, November 2021.
tree as seen from the balcony of n g m a bangalore
Tree outside NGMA. Bangalore, March 2022.
tree outside a gardening shed
Tree in the Victoria Memorial grounds. Kolkata, October 2021.
cypress tree
Cypress in the Solar Observatory campus. Kodaikanal, May 2026.

Also read

Uhl river with a rocky bank and hills on both side
Netravati Nadhikarai Oram
hand holding a copy of the house on the mango street by sandra cisneros
The House on Mango Street
bulgogi, kimchi, and sticky rice with 20th century girl playing in the background
The Sound of the Washing Machine in the Background

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