An Image of Life, from The Moor's Last Sigh
A novel by Salman Rushdie
"Children at Mahalaxmi played ankh micholi, hide-and-go-seek,
in and out of the crowds of adult legs. This is how we are to one another,
I thought, divided by generations. Do jungle animals understand the true
nature of the trees among which they have their daily being? In the parent-forest,
amid those mighty trunks, we shelter and play; but whether the trees are
healthy or corroded, whether they harbour demons or good sprites, we cannot
say. Nor do we know the greatest secret of all: that one day we, too, will
become as arboreal as they. And the trees, whose leaves we eat, whose bark
we gnaw, remember sadly that they were animals once, they climbed like
squirrels and bounded like deer, until one day they paused, and their legs
grew down into the earth and stuck there, spreading, and vegetation sprouted
from their swaying heads. They remember this as a fact; but the lived reality
of their fauna-years, the how-it-felt of that chaotic freedom, is beyond
recapture. They remember it as a rustle in their leaves." from Chapter 17
For further information, and to submit comments and suggestions:
This page has been accessed 9863
times since March 1999 ... plus an unknowable number of hits before that on
previous hosts (1996-1999).
It was last modified Thursday, 27-Sep-2001 18:58:18 EDT.