Walking with the 'tree man'

It was around 2005, and I embarked on my green journey with Vijay Thiruvady, a renowned tree storyteller and an authority on the green heritage of Bengaluru. For some reason, I was the only participant in one of the first walks he conducted in Lalbagh. I came home a lot wiser and raring to learn more.

Over the years, I too haunted Lalbagh frequently. I learned a lot more about the trees from all over the world that Vijay had shown me and talked to me about. It took me a long time to gain enough confidence to conduct walks myself, but whenever I found a plant or a tree that I could not identify (and that still happens!), I would ask Vijay, and he always had the answer. The Divi-divi tree? The Elephant Apple? The Sandbox Tree? The Slow Match Tree? Oh yes, they are all to be found at Lalbagh!

Always polite and helpful, he never said no to me and often gave me references to books or other experts from whom I could get the information I was seeking. I bought his last book, "Heritage Trees: In and Around Bangalore," as soon as it came out. I took it to him to sign. We got chatting about our favourite subject, and he remarked, "It is the trees who are the focus of the book; I am only bringing them to the attention of others." And the book remains with me, unsigned, sitting on my bookshelf as I write this. And I can imagine its author smiling his usual benign smile at me from above. I soon came to realise his illustrious background, which made his unassuming manner all the more impressive.

In one of our last conversations, when I teased him about having become a Bangalore celebrity, his response, once again, was: "Not me, Deepa; it is the trees of our city who are the celebrities and need to be saved and nurtured. These are the living beings who clean our air for us and provide so much—shade, homes for many living creatures, fruits, and beautiful flowers." His love for the trees was so patent.

He blessed me and said he was happy that I was carrying on the tradition of conducting tree and nature walks in Lalbagh. I told him how often I was still coming across trees and plants that I needed to learn about. "That will continue to happen," he said in his usual soft voice. "Trees are an unending source of knowledge".

Well, Vijay, I miss you and your gentle guidance very much now. The trees of Lalbagh will surely miss you, and as I walk amongst them, I send up a prayer for your eternal happiness amongst the trees of heaven! And perhaps, in the sighing of the wind as it whistles through the trees in our botanical garden and the shimmering of the rustling sunlit leaves, I will once again sense the presence of this historian, who was erudite and a gentleman in every sense of the word.