The celestial lights filtering in through the gaps in the branches of the Peepal tree turned everything they touched to silver. The mighty tree spread like a vast canopy and the whispering of the wind that passed through it was a gentle one, producing a soporific effect on the two boys who lay on their charpoys gazing up at the vast dome formed by the tree. Being under the Peepal was like being_home at the end of the day.
The boys talked mainly of their night school where both were studying in the ninth class. Kedar Master, their class teacher was the main source of inspiration for them. His absorbing science classes had made Munna to aspire to be an astrophysicist and Bholu a computer engineer. They realised that this would not only mean hard work but also moving out of their small town of Ranipur, for higher studies. Also it would mean saving money. For this purpose each boy faithfully deposited his monthly savings in the local bank.
 Bholu and Munna worked at the drive-in-restaurant that stood at the point where the NH (National Highway) 7, passed through Ranipur. Most of the customers were truck drivers or motorists. Although their employer paid the young waiters a decent sum of Rs. 100 per day, the work  was exacting. Business was always brisk and the lads working there were on their feet from seven a.m. to six p.m. serving tea, snacks and meals. The half an hour mid-afternoon break gave them just enough time to have a quick lunch.
Then, suddenly things changed. Thanks to a group of local activists,  horizons widened for the children. Now, no child was allowed to work beyond 6.00 p.m. Now, the hours after work could be spent in attending Night School.
"You know Bholu, we have a Peepal tree near our house in Katras village," said Munna stretching himself lazily, "but not such a big one as this! The pale green heart shaped leaves look so beautiful in the spring. My mother cooks rotis and sabzi on a wood stove in the open air and serves us hot, hot food. How my sisters, my little brother and myself love it, eating the delicious food under the Peepal tree!"
Bholu listened avidly and lapped up every bit of what Munna said. Being an orphan who belonged right here in Ranipur, any account of family life was special to him. More so, because there was not even one person he could claim as his relative.
"Say Munna, once again, what it was like, the evening before you left home," urged Bholu. How he loved to hear an account of it!
Munna obliged and spoke in a faraway tone, "That day mother gave us a special dinner of Bajra rotis and potato-cauliflower curry. Dinner over, maiyya gathered us, her children, around her, under the Peepal tree and began to sing. Her songs were folklore telling of strange lands and separation. Suddenly my mother stopped singing and said in a trembling voice, ‘Aarey Munna, tomorrow you'll be gone! Then what will I do? You're almost like the man of the house, standing alongside me.' And she wiped away her tears with the corner of her shawl."
"You'll must have been so sad!" exclaimed Bholu, though he very well knew what followed. He had heard the story so many times! "Not for long mind you! My irrepressible siblings sang out, 'Don't worry ma, bhayya will come back after sometime, to take us away to Ranipur,' And on that happy note all of us slept off under the tree we knew and loved so well."
"You must be waiting for the day when they will come here," mused Bhola.
"Yes, but that will happen only after two-three years. Now I keep myself happy thinking that at least my sisters and brother are going to a regular school, and mother's life is an easier one," spoke up Munna in his attempt to see the brighter side of life. "This Peepal reminds me so of home. Both, the one here and the one at Katras are the giant shelter protecting us; a mainstay in our lives."
Munna remembered the time when all Bholu and he could afford by way of a house was a shack made with strips of tin joined together. They built it under the Peepal. This proved a blessing. Its leafy tent kept the tin from heating too much and the water trickling in through the gaps in the tin structure. The tree became such an integral part of their lives that the boys never wandered far from it. When they could afford it, they moved into a proper two-roomed brick house, one just by the side of the Peepal tree. The tree was, so to say, a witness to every milestone in their lives. --- their going to school, the transistor and bicycle which they bought together, the many hours spent studying under this tree, the occasions when they pored over their report cards exulting over the good marks.
"Trees are really wonderful! See how this huge canopy provides shade and sheiter to anyone stopping under it, even to the tramp who idles away his time," said Bholu. "Remember what our geography teacher told us about trees?"
"Yes, they hold the soil together and prevent soil erosion. They bring rain. Trees act as air purifiers when they take in carbon dioxide and give out oxygen," Munna provided the information.
"Tomorrow is Vana Mahaotsava, the festival which celebrates tree planting and aforestation. There will be a tree planting ceremony in our school. I say Munna, I've got an idea --- let's contribute twenty-five rupees each from our savings and buy a sapling. We can plant it alongside the other ones."
"What a wonderful idea Bholu! In the years to come there will be hundreds of green canopies under whose vast spread many will feel sheltered and protected. Let us buy the sapling first thing in the morning and hurry -----" Just as Bholu and Munna fell asleep with a smile on their faces, Mother Nature seemed to enfold the two boys in her arms, safely tucking them in under the huge green tent. Its leaves trembled like quicksilver, producing a sighing sound that rose and fell in the evening breeze, soft as the gentle breaths of the two boys who slept on......