Ashwin Upadhyaya’s Blog

But I had some bitter experiences. I saw that I could not so easily count on the help of the community in getting it to do its own duty, as I could in claiming for it rights. At some places I met with insults, at others with polite indifference. It was too much for people to bestir themselves to keep their surroundings clean. To expect them to find money for the work was out of the question. These experiences taught me, better than ever before, that without infinite patience it was impossible to get the people to do any work. It is the reformer who is anxious for the reform, and not society, from which he should expect nothing better than opposition, abhorrence and even mortal persecution. Why may not society regard as retrogression what the reformer holds dear as life itself ?

-Mahatma Gandhi

What more can I expect from the neighbors of this park? What more can I expect from the government mechanism when it was my madness that led me to plant trees in public places?

Here is what I should have expected.

Never before have I seen a park being developed with its trees being bulldozed. It took us 2 years to let a sapling grow from 4 feet to 8 feet. The saplings were deep rooted enough to survive on their own now. But what use are the roots when these trees cannot talk? And when those who can, didn’t talk too?

I do not want to talk about how the park could be planned so as to retain all the trees. Anybody with a slight sense of logic could work that out. I just want YOU to ask one question for yourself.

• Suppose you are witness to a couple of trees being cut, no matter for what reason, would you at least stop and question the action? To extend this question, would you stand up and question injustice in any form?

I want to believe the answer is a ‘Yes’. Because, I still want to believe that it is worth fighting for a cause. I still want to believe that democracy exists. I still want to believe that there is hope. I still want to believe that people can act and not just talk.