Kaju
Fenny is good. It doesn’t have much alcohol content as of Whiskey but hits hard
if taken in quick succession (2 persons one bottle 15 minutes). Either it’s the
affect of Fenny or the driver of our bus was habitual
of driving rash. We were coming back from the North Goa
tour arranged by our hotel when the driver made a sharp cut to the
right; we were sitting at the last seat so the affect of jumps and turns was
bit more. I looked back and noticed, it’s not driver’s mistake but a tree in
the middle of the road. That’s from where this interesting conversation
started.
“Why
these stupid fellows don’t cut these middle-road trees” As always I was annoyed
on that and elaborated more about many peepal trees existing in the middle of
the roads in Gurgaon, which causes fatal accidents numerous times.
“We
should not cut them” Yogesh said.
“Why?
Because we Indians worship Peepal……. Is that the only reason?” I asked.
“Do
you know why we worship peepal?” Yogesh was calm as always. We always have
interesting conversations between us and I think we both enjoy it also. This
time also I knew that there was something interesting coming up.
“I
will say because of our superstitions, as people say Devi-Devtas reside
underneath it” I replied in funny tone.
“NO”
He replied with his finger dwindling in big pendulum motion.
“Style
marna chhod and explain it further” I stiffened him with the seat back to avoid
him moving with the bus vibrations.
“Majorly
the plants give oxygen during day and release carbon dioxide during night. But
Peepal is one of those few plants which release Oxygen all through 24 hours.
That’s the reason behind worshiping Peepal initially but now people are just
following their traditional values without knowing the reason behind it” He
replied and I was amazed because I didn’t know it.
“How
is it possible?”
And
Google baba answered all my queries. I searched on my mobile and got this.
‘Most plants largely uptake Carbon dioxide
(CO2})and release oxygen during the day (photosynthesis) and uptake oxygen and
release CO2 during the night (respiration). Some plants such as Peepal tree can
uptake CO2 during the night as well because of their ability to perform a type
of photosynthesis called Crassulacean Acid Metabolism (CAM ).
However, it is not true that they release large amounts of oxygen during the
night.’
“Have
you ever noticed those white threads wrapped around peepal……?” Yogesh asked and
I nodded.
“Those
are for identification of peepal tree during night…… As we know in older times
there were no lights and people usually travel on feet from one village to
other. So, if somebody is travelling during night then these threads can help
him identifying peepal tree for rest underneath it. And now a day’s people are
following it as worship method blindly” He explained.
“Those
were the older times but now we can’t put human life in danger to get some
extra oxygen….. After all safety is utmost important in engineering point of
view also” I tried to keep my upper hand in the argument by pulling our
engineering into it.
“Then
we should plan our colonies and roads accordingly” Here comes the funniest
reply by Yogesh.
“Come-on
yaar……. You can’t say to the builders that 1st check out all the
peepal trees in the area then go ahead with your Road-maps and all” I was still
bursting into laughter.
Till
then even our co-passengers also involved themselves into the discussion and
they too are giving their valuable comments.
“Then
you are saying that we should cut down trees…….. And what about environment
safety” One senior fellow in the bus threw the question.
“No
no…… I am not in favor of cutting down trees. But the one’s which are dangerous
for the humans should be pulled down definitely……. And for the oxygen you can
plant more trees…. Peepal is not the only answer to this”
“And
moreover do you really think that this extra oxygen is the reason behind those
peepal trees in the middle of the roads……. No my dear friends…… It’s our
superstitious nature”
“What
about Trans-plantation of those trees?” Yogesh came with a new logic.
“Dude……
Economics…… Do you really think it is economically viable…… and moreover these
big people trees are hard to Trans-Plant” I replied.
