...

8 views

PARADISE LOST.
Banyan was a small little peaceful village situated on the outskirts of the forest.It had a few visitors.The forest was the providing resource for the people living in the village.It was a dense forest which had a unique tree credited to it's origin.This tree grew abundantly in the forest and the forest had strange characteristics attatched to it.It had large creepers growing all over it.And the camouflage formed one of the important ingredients of the staple dish of the Village which was known as Lichen.This was a favourite amongst the children as it was a savoury dish and packed with a lot of flavours and provided the much needed energy.
The people gathered firewood from the forest but were afraid to venture too deep inside the forest.It was a strange and weird forest unique in many ways.A waterfall fell from the hills outlining the forest which contributed to the splendid beauty of the forest.This place was magical and anything could happen here.The villagers were ignorant and agreed to most of the mysteries befalling them as the work of God .And a few of them were sure that Demons existed inside the caves found in the forest.But they could not venture out because of the Forest Goddesses who had put a safety line made of leaves around them.These flowers and creepers were pretty yet forbidding for they themselves were protected by thorns.It formed the Dress of the Village Godesses which was picked by herself during the time of the spring.The Godesses would go on a holiday for a few days to stitch this dress leaving the Village unsafe and the people residing in it.
One day at this time of the year something fantastic happened.It was a very miserable day for the people of the Village.There was a lunar eclipse. The woman of the Village as usual started their journey to collect water from the only well situated at the centre of the Village.They filled their pots and went about their usual chores.Then the miracle happened.The water had become contaminated.Those who drank the water became mad in their mannerisms.Their refused to the think logically.Their thoughts had become weird.They began to get confused.They forgot the answers to simple things like the existence of God and birth of the universe.They fought to drink water from the well and soon all the people in the Village became mad except the Village medicine man and the headman.They did not know what had happened.They began to be questioned for silly things .They did not know the difference between day and night.They did not even understand the seven stages of lives and the nine months which made them.Nor did they understand the birth of children and the importance of wearing clothes.They began to hate their Goddesses.They went naked.They were mad but clever.

At last there was no hope.The village headman ran away from the Village.The medicine man however was able to invent a medicine which could cure the people after observing the time of the solar eclipse.The eclipse had made things grow.The village Godesses had probably gone to bathe and had taken off her dress.So the medicine man sprinkled the powder made from pounding the sacred leaves inside the well.The people began to get cured .They began to come to their senses.
The people of the Village were people once again.They stopped acting like children.And from that day it became a tradition in the Village to wear clothes.All children and woman wear allowed to wear clothes.Only orange and yellow colored clothes could be worn.It was a symbol of purity.The color green became the official adornment of the medicine man.It depicted the wealth of the forest and the abundant resource of the people of the Village.These were natural resources.
Black came to be known as the symbol of evil and white coloured clothes became the official dress of the Goddesses.
Did you Know?
The flowers growing on the strange tree turned blue slowly.It was because of the Village Godesses.The statue of the Godesses was placed near the Well at the centre of the Village.The beauty of the Goddesses lay in her closed Eyes.The land the village was situated in came to be known as the Land of Black Gold.
The Banyan tree is typical of the villages in India.

© Priyanka Bhandarkar