The Ungrateful Man: A Conversation between Trees -Swathi Shenoy

About the author:
Swathi Shenoyis a youngest short story writer and a poet. Her works focussed more on
Environment, Education and Women rights.
The Ungrateful Man:
The author wrote this lesson in the form of a conversation. A group of trees were cut down
to build a shopping mall. The remaining trees have started discussing that they have lost their
friends and their peaceful life because of the interference of the humans. They conclude that the
humans are ungrateful because they destroying them though they are giving them fresh air, food,
shade. Trees know only giving, but humans are ruthless and cruel towards the trees.
The author described the atmosphere and mood of the trees. The sky was cloudy and the
forest was calm with a gentle breeze. The forest was quiet. There were different types of trees in
the forest. Some of them were tall and some were short, thin and stout. Despite their difference in
their appearance their mood was alike. There was no movement among these trees. They looked at
the large empty space in front of them where humans are planning to build a huge mall. They
don’t know about the ‘mall’ but their peace of mind is gone.
The trees started discussing among themselves. One of those trees said that it hates those
people who came there for constructing the mall. From the day one they started their work; the
piece and serenity of this forest has been vanished. The same tree continued saying that their ears
were going deaf due to noises made by the machines throughout the day.
The other tree added to his friend’s comments saying that, not only the noise but also the
pollution caused by that construction was making him feel sick.
Hearing this, another tree’s anger increased and said that the “humans are ungrateful”. It
said that even though, they were protecting the people by sacrificing their lives, the human beings
are reducing most of the forest and building houses in it. She raised the question, ‘What will they
achieve by killing us?”. She said they are destroying themselves and not recognising their
mistake.
There was a tallest tree which was silent until then started saying that, it lost many of its
friends and many animals became homeless due to the deforestation. Suddenly, they stopped
talking and became silent by looking at a man who came to the forest. He examined a tallest tree
carefully; then wrote something on its trunk and repeated the same on the next tree and left. It
created some distress among the trees.
As the person left without harming any tree, they felt relaxed. However, their relief was
short lived. No sooner did the man left, then another one came with a tool in his hand and started
cutting the marked trees. The trees winched in pain with each blow on them. The other trees in the
forest were watching the situation helplessly and cried silently for the loss of their friends.
Conclusion:
Through this story, the writer depicts that we don’t achieve anything by destroying the
trees instead we destroy ourselves. The human beings will come to know the value of these trees
when the last tree on the earth is being cut.