A huge gathering of shiully flowers are scattered in front of the royal doors of the Landlord Sree Pratap Narayan’s House. A silk Cotton (simul) tree is standing shamelessly quite opposite to the grand gate of the house. It is flattering its head as if it wants to say something. It makes a significant wink in this house. Nobody ever tries to feel the hidden hints of Its mind. Why is he so anxious? Does it know the quest of the hidden treasure of the king! But its screaming never reaches anyone. If it really knows everything, why does it remain silent on that day!
How could the tree say? What else is left to say? The tree is the only silent audience of everything. Its Lord gives it only the right of growing, nothing else. This is the old aesthetic house where the festival is held all year round. The prayer room of the Lord’s wife (Ginnima), where she used to present offerings towards God, becomes the safest living place for the birds and animals nowadays.
Many years ago, the simul tree was growing without any disturbance under the preference of the landlord. Ginnima ordered to cut down the tree many times but, the lord never paid heed to her words. The shad under the tree was very dear to Kortababu.
Sree Pratap Narayan was a benevolent lord who loved and helped his subjects as much as he could. The subjects were also very devoted to him. If a person couldn’t earn sufficient to eat, the Lord made his problem solve by giving food and money. At a time it seemed that charity became the only aim and passion of the Lord’s house.
Some years ago, the house was flourishing with wealth and festivals. The Lord’s only son named Prodipto Narayan became a highly knowledgeable person and returned to his land after five years from abroad. What a happy moment that was for his mother! She started charity as if she was the owner of the whole world. But she remained indifferent about the financial condition of the lordship. She opened the royal cell of finance out of pleasure and gave everybody as much as possible. The subjects were also praising their Gunnima. The pleasure of both the Lord and the subjects knew no bound. But their fortune didn’t last long. Fate always plays a very significant role in human life.
One day, every action collapsed suddenly. Time played a very trick with the lord Pratap Narayan. Ginnima trusted her son blindly. Prodipto wished his mother that he wanted to do something for the poor villager. As the father always thought that his son is still immature, Prodipto didn’t say anything to his father. He begged money from his mother and he took all the ornaments and money from the royal chest of house. In the very early morning, he started for the town with that money and ornaments. Everything was going on normally.
In the evening though the mother started her daily puja (worshiping), her mind became unrest. She felt that something inauspicious is going to happen. She couldn’t ask her prayer wholeheartedly that evening. After a while, the villager brought a corpse into the yard of the house. The dead body didn’t come alone. It brought the life long-sufferings to the family. Some creditors also appeared with the Corpse and they had lots of demands.
They started to explain, “It is an accident. Podipto is passing the road in an imbalanced way as he was drunk. He has done many criminal offenses and has flown away from the jail before a few months ago”. The creditors now claimed for their money with interest that Prodipto had borrowed from them. Now all the responsibilities had gone to the father. The mother became silent forever with a massive heart attack. Pratap Narayan came home after finishing the funeral.
Standing beneath that simul tree he had heard the crying and screaming of his subjects. At first, he didn’t understand anything. He thought that the great pain which covered his mind, nothing would be flown over that. He couldn’t imagine even that some more painful scene was waiting for him to make him empty. But, this time he remained steady and thought now there was nothing in this world which hold that much power to break him from inside. But it was the previous moment of the great storm.
Years after years the shari that Ginnima preserved fresh and new carefully for her daily prayer, became strangle in her neck now. The last faith in Kortababu’s life became to fade. But he never turned back from his responsibilities. After some days the creditors came again with another news. They brought a legal notice of Auction of the house to the landlord. On that day the Landlord was the only victim of all sorts of misfortune and the only witness was the simul tree.
The Auction started in the morning and the price of the house was determined . Every creditor became satisfied. The creditors sold only an old broken house. But the Landlord had lost Ginnima’s puja(worshiping), subjects had lost their freedom, happiness, pleasure. Every smile of the territory had been sold on the auction. Only the tree was rescued. It didn’t need to leave its place. After that day, nobody saw their lord again. There was none to save Pratap Narayan from the ultimate abasement. Like the day of the auction, the tree is standing here shamelessly still today, sighing for it’s Lord and his house.