The Trees at Manikyavelu Mansion

As I walked through the sprawling rooms at the National Gallery of Modern Art at Manikyavelu Mansion, looking at the tiny, tentative, sometimes exquisite, always unfailingly polite works which represent early Indian Modern Art, my eyes kept travelling towards the window frames and what lay beyond it –

From the plum tree

From the plum tree

When I returned to the paintings on the wall, they had reduced themselves to faded lines on musty paper.

From the plum tree

I walked out onto the balcony

From the plum tree

From the plum tree

And wandered through

From the plum tree

From the plum tree

From the plum tree

Then I walked into the Contemporary Art section and looked through canvases of curious blobs, incongruous elements, angry brushstrokes and psychedelic colour all fraught with deep and intense meaning.

And then I sat down and looked up –

From the plum tree

And then I walked outside –

From the plum tree

And I saw -

From the plum tree

From the plum tree

From the plum tree

And I understood why my ancestors fell on their knees and worshiped trees.