It was dark summer night. The air was still and the heat was suspended in the air.
A man appeared from the darkness and approached a row of 50 trees.
He took out a brush, dipped it in the bucket of paint and marked a big cross on the trunk of a tree. He repeated this act 50 times till every tree in the row was marked for death by axing.
The row of trees had come in the way of the progress of man.
The marked trees squeezed within, turned pale and there was a shudder and a cry. Some leaves fell in anguish. The man did not hear anything and did not see anything.
His job accomplished, the man sat down, resting his back on the trunk of a marked tree and lit a cigarette. Between drags of smoke and drowsiness he mumbled curses against the summer heat, his job and growing poverty.
After the initial shock, the trees voiced discontent at the unending ill-treatment meted out to them by Man and conferred amongst them whether they should retaliate by shedding all the leaves to deprive the Man of the shade from the scorching summer Sun and letting a heavy branch fall on this man’s head.
The thoughts were shunned, retaliation being a man’s trait.
But the silent agitation continued and all the trees joined in.
The trees decided to leave the Man and the intensity of the compulsion to leave Man reached such a pitch that feet grew to the trees.
The trees started walking to leave the Man.
The jerk of their step woke up the man, who was leaning against the tree.
Fear ran through his body, for what he saw he could not believe.
He ran into the darkness shouting-----the trees have grown feet.
Some heard his shouts in the sleep----but could not believe it----and continued sleeping.
Morning editions of newspapers did not carry the news because the information reached them late. When the Man woke up in the morning, most of them realized only then, the absence of trees amongst them.
Though the administration for progress of Man felt relieved of the problem,
They still fabricated and brought out all the defects of the trees in a note,
proposing dire consequences to the criminals who escaped axing. Finance Ministry, also, joined the administration to make their note convincing by exaggerating the expenditure on growing and maintaining trees.
They even suggested that in their stead, plastic trees should be erected for its obvious advantages.
Custodians of law were sent in all direction. The file could not be closed till the trees were caught and punishment administered. The administration again proposed with further justifications, the words tree and green to be deleted from the vocabulary of Man.
The solution was found, implemented and the file was closed.
Man perished thereafter and the earth disintegrated soon after.

Ved Nayar