Thursday, March 25, 2010

Dhak has more than the leaves...

There is an old proverb in Hindi- Dhak ke teen paat it is mostly used for efforts leading to no results.
Here paat is leaves and Dhak is a kind of tree. So, possibly this proverb is used all because of little worth of the Dhak tree...it grows up slowly and fetches not enough wood for fire. Leaves of these trees are still used to serve street food in many ‘backward’ areas, where plastic bags are not supplied in abundance or where people cannot afford the additional cost of plate with cost of food...but perhaps people expected more from the Dhak..not just paat.

the magic of spring..all flowers..no leaves..

To cut this long story short..it has been real injustice to this variety of tree. It grows even on dead mountains, it braves all attacks and intrusions of humans and stray animals..the drought and the erosions..
And when the spring swings the mood of nature…places like Aravali and other such terrains go crazy with the bloom that paints the entire dead valleys and dusty driveways into valley of flowers and pleasure driveways.
a temple in Aravali Valley surrounded by Dhak trees

One can easily find these lovely trees with their wealth for about two weeks in March-April in Faridabad and surrounding areas. The valley of Aravali turns into saffron field and fauna of the terrain have real time of feast during the bloom of Dhak.
the valley of dead rocks turned into valley of flowers
I really wonder why people have not given the due credit and affection to these Dhak trees. Haryana may proudly declare it state flower, which adds colour and grace to the land of Hari or Lord Krishna.