The beautiful garden in front of the verandah was always a soothing view in the fresh morning. Everyday, as the sun rose, Piu woke up to see it, looked at the lush green garden from her verandah, and yawned lazily looking at the whitish yellow sunlight beaming from the clear blue autumn skies.
Across the hedges, the long spontaneums waved with the happy breeze and their white beard would move heavily. For at least an hour, she would not move. The maid servant came and she waved silently back at those spontaneums.
After few hours, she would again come back to the verandah. As, the city started to be busier, the vehicles started to create lots of noise from the streets beyond the garden. The big trucks, loaded with packed stuffs, the ambulance, the school buses, thousands of cars, motor bikes, scooters, bicycles, rickshaws slowly filled up the street and would create such a loud cacophony of a variety of noises together, that often Piu would get distracted while enjoying the dancing spontaneums.
Spontaneums, as Piu felt, were not mere plants. They were her friends, and not grasses. Their ever dancing stooping posture would never be affected by even a storm. Only during a storm, they would shed all the white beard, yet they would not give up their spirit of life.
As the hours passed, the commotion increased. The chimneys would exhale lots of pollutants into the open. The vision slowly turned into a blurred and obscure brown. The contrast of the reddish brown from the fresh green felt striking to the eye. The grass lost there vibrance, the winds had no time to make those spontaneums dance. They were busy to wipe out the chimney wastes. She did not like this time of the day. She would go back to her room and sleep in the afternoon, only to come back at evening, hopeful about some changes.
Slowly, it would be time for the sun to set, the orange tinge of the dusk, was again beaming a hope of tranquillity in the perturbed mind of Piu. The colourful sky still displaying the smoke emerging out of the tall chimneys, but it was not so visible in the dusk sky as it was during the day.
The spontaneums started their dance. She loved the fact, that despite being immovable, these never stopped enjoying themselves. The spontaneums grew on their own in autumn, and hence the name. The scientific name of this plant is Saccharum Spontaneum. These long grasses would feel so free yet being chained down in the ground. This inspired her. Under a dark starry night sky, the moonlight shone those white beard of the spontaneums.
The maid servant would have to leave for her house. It was time for Piu to go to the toilet, have her dinner, and just try to sleep. She waved her hands to those spontaneums, as the maid servant pushed the wheelchair, on which she used to sit all day long.
Several years back, Piu lost her husband and kids when a truck ran them over. She lost her two legs in that same accident.
After having her dinner, the maid would make her bed, and bring her to the bedroom, drag her from the wheelchair onto the bed, and would close the door. She wouldn't get sleep so early. Looking at the wide, blank ceiling, she would remain awake and think of dancing like the spontaneums, and teardrops would rush from her eyes through the sides of her temples and would wet her pillow, while the commotion from outside would still be audible faintly.
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