The banana trees are walking again

I measure my life not in coffee-spoons, but in banana trees.

This happens every year. On a particular Thursday in August, when I return home in the evening, and I am on this narrow road that opens out to the market place, I am jolted from my end-of-day sleepy autopilot driving by the sight of a huge crowd of small banana trees walking. And every time I think of Macbeth.

It is the festival of Varamahalakshmi, which is the beginning of the festival season here in Karnataka. It basically means that Ganesh Chathurthi is not far away. And then one after the other, Dussera, Diwali etc.

And it all begins with the scene of the banana trees walking. Which takes me by surprise every year because I have no clue which day it happens. People carry these baby trees home from the market, to decorate their god-places, along with the flowers.

And as for Macbeth..........



["....Macbeth shall never vanquish'd be, until
Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill
Shall come against him."

Banquo's ghost to Macbeth
Act IV Scene 1 Macbeth. Shakespeare

Macbeth thinks it can never happen. [You must be joking, brother - woods walking? Huh!]
But Macduff finally comes to defeat him with his army carrying boughs of trees, hiding under the camoufage.
When the messenger comes and tells him that the woods have begun to move, he calls him "Liar and slave!"]

So a couple of hours ago, coming back home on yet another August Thursday, I saw the banana trees walking towards me. And a whole year passed by suddenly, a page turned.