Adventures in a Banyan Tree (Ruskin Bond) The narrator – the boy – says that the house and grounds of their home in India were his grandfather’s domain, and the old magnificent banyan tree was his. Grandfather at the age of sixty-five could no longer climb the tree. Grandmother used to tease Grandfather about this. The boy made friendship with one small grey squirrel. Soon it became friendlier enough to take food from his hands. In the spring, when the banyan tree was full of red figs, birds of all kinds would flock into its branches, and it became the noisiest place on the road. He had built a platform half way up the tree. He used to spend his afternoons sitting there reading books and seeing various sights. He read various kinds of books such as Treasure Island, Huckleberry Finn, The Mowgli stories, and the Novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs and Louisa May Alcott.
One April afternoon, when everyone was indoors due to warm breezes of the approaching summer, the boy witnessed a dreadful fight between a cobra and a mongoose. He was sitting on the platform as usual. Suddenly a huge black cobra came out from the cactus clump, and a mongoose also emerged from the bushes. They came face to face in a clearing beneath the banyan tree. Two other spectators – a myna and a jungle crow – also arrived there. Hissing defiance, the cobra raised three of his six feet off the ground and spread his broad hood. The mongoose bushed his tail, and the long hair on his spine stood up. The cobra stood on the defensive and the mongoose started attacking. It was really a dreadful battle of champions. The myna and crow also participated in the battle, and the crow collided heavily with the cobra and lost its life. The mongoose attacked the cobra severely, bit on its back several times, and finally the cobra died.
The myna congratulated the mongoose with a shrill cry and flew away. Grandfather was happy to know that the mongoose won the fight. He had encouraged the mongoose to live in the garden as it was useful to keep snakes away from the house and garden. Grandfather had brought home a white rat from the bazaar, and the boy used to take it with him to the banyan tree. One day Grandmother’s knitting was missing. They searched for it everywhere without success. Next day the boy found something glinting in a hole in the banyan tree. When he looked in the hole, he found three white squirrel babies among the wool in the hole. They were surprised and puzzled to see them. But when the boy mentioned that he used to take the white rat to the tree, Grandfather said that the white rat must be the father of the white squirrel babies. He also said that rats and squirrels were related to each other, and they could have offspring! |
