Baingan Raja paced the green grassy patch. He was a mighty and impressive brinjal, glowing a deep purple with a glossy green crown. But today there was no smile on his face, rather he had a frown and as he walked on the grass, he would wring his hands from time to time. The rest of his court maintained a distance from him, none wanted to be squashed. The slender talong in pale purple, the rotund and white eggplant; the fairytale eggplant, tiny with purple and white stripes; the green vankaya with a spiky crown and the heirloom eggplant in pale green. They did not pace like Baingan Raja, but all were equally worried.

If something was not done soon, it would be a disaster.

"Attaaa..."

I stopped and looked at my nephew, who was both upset and confused, "What happened sweetheart? You do not like the story?"

"You are supposed to start with 'once upon a time...'. And where did all those brinjals come from? And how can they walk and talk?"

Sigh! I do get carried away by my enthusiasm and wild imagination. Smiling at him I started the story, from the beginning.

Once upon a time, a hundred thousand years ago Earth was beautiful. It had clear seas, a variety of animals and many different kinds of trees and plants. There were colourful birds, pretty butterflies and beautiful flowers.

The first man was a hunter, who would hunt his food and eat the wild berries and fruits that he found on the ground or in forests. Soon, tired of roaming around, men built homes near rivers and villages began. Once man learnt to grow his food and domesticate animals, the villages became towns and cities.

They observed nature and learnt from it. They discovered fire and learnt to cook. They invented new things. Wheels, with which they could build carriages and chariots. Mud pots for cooking and storing. Cloth spun from cotton and silk. Furniture from trees and paper from wood.

As they learnt, they grew clever. The cleverer they became, the more new things they invented. Carts became cars, bicycles into motorcycles. They had radios, then television sets; telephones and mobile phones. They invented boats and ships, and then planes and space ships.

Soon Man began to get greedy, however much they had, they needed more. They drilled the mountains for metal and cut down forests for their homes. They dried rivers for roads and paved the lands for their cities. Forests of trees disappeared and concrete jungles took their place. The grasslands were taken for farms and then farms turned into factories.

But Man did not stop there, they dumped their garbage on land and threw trash in the oceans, which destroyed thousands of wildlife. And as if that was not enough, they went around killing animals and birds and fish, sometimes for food but mostly for fun.

All these acts were choking Earth and polluted her air and water. Many plants and animals went extinct, yet Man did not stop. Instead, they hung pictures of the animals which disappeared. He built terrace gardens for the grasslands they destroyed. Glass aquariums to display the fish that survived. Zoos to keep animals that were disappearing. And wrote speeches about how to protect the Earth.

Man had stopped caring about the Earth, so stopped sharing the world with the animals and plants.

However, not all of mankind was selfish. Some people cared about the Earth and all her creatures.

One of them was Gautham, the five-year old son of a seed merchant.

Gautam was a quiet child, who preferred plants to people. People could be cruel to a shy child who was not physically strong, but the plants swayed in welcome. From the time he could walk he trailed behind his grandfather who was an avid gardener. His grandfather loved talking while he worked, so Gautam learnt about vegetables and flowers while he watched his grandfather work.

Another of his favourite spots was the large peepal tree, which grew at a little distance from their town. It was an old tree, with a wide, twisted trunk, and a large canopy of branches. At some point in time, it had been worshipped, where there were villages nearby. Now that the people had moved into town, there were few visitors to the tree. But since it was considered holy, the people did not dare chop it down.

The peepal tree was a magnet for wildlife. Though near a town, the tree attracted fruit-eating bats, a lot of birds like the coppersmith, common mynah, golden oriole, asian koels, rose-ringed parakeets, red-vented bulbuls depend on the tree for their diet. Apart from the fig-eaters, birds like the flycatchers, sunbirds, warblers, tailorbirds, shrikes also found ample opportunities to hunt countless insects that thrived around the wild fig tree.

And if he was lucky, he would also catch sight of the Indian eagle owl. Gautam loved visiting the tree and soon was such a familiar sight that the birds did not screech or fly away when he came close. With his grandfather's help, he mastered climbing the tree. The broad branches and long ariel roots enabled him to explore quite a bit and the discovery of the hollow thrilled him. To the five-year old, the hollow seemed endless, for the tiny pebbles he dropped hardly made a sound when they reached the bottom.

On the days he could not go out, he spent time watching television, mostly National Geographic. It fascinated him to learn about the different animals that roamed the lands and the birds that ruled the skies. Being a silent child, he listened more than he spoke. And though he could not grasp the exact impact of the terms like global warming and climate change he understood that humans were slowly destroying Earth.

His declarations of saving Earth were met with amused smiles and polite dismissal. Even his grandfather, who was his staunch ally, was not enthusiastic. However, when Gautam persisted, his grandfather gave him a simple piece of advice, "What you want to do is good and is important, but you have to think if you, a small child, can do such big things. And instead of waiting till you are grown up, start small, do what you can. Remember the squirrel and Lord Rama?"

My munchkin answered, "I do. When Lord Rama was building the bridge across the sea to reach Lanka, a squirrel wanted to help. The army of vanaras laughed and teased it, "You are so tiny, you cannot even lift the smallest of the stones. How could you possibly help? Now get out of our way."

But the squirrel did not run away, instead, it carried as large pebbles as it could and running between the legs of the monkey men, threw them on the bridge. When Rama caught sight of the squirrel, he picked it up, thanked it and caressed its back with his three fingers, leaving black stripes. And that is why, from that day onward, all squirrels have black stripes on them."

"You are right, and that is what Gautam did too."

"Picked up pebbles?"

"No, something similar."

Gautam knew the squirrel tale and decided that he too could do something like that. He could not save the big animals or the large trees but he could certainly save the seeds. Seeds, which one day, would grow in trees.

He gathered the dead and dried flowers. With his grandfather's help, Gautam removed the seeds and carefully packed them in small packets, which his grandfather then labelled. His grandfather taught him how to clean, dry and store bulbs. From his father's store, he collected the seed packets which his father said would no longer grow. Soon he had a large collection of seeds and bulbs that he kept in shoe boxes or bags under his bed.

After a few months, his room was full of boxes of seeds and his parents insisted that he get rid of them. Gautam did not want to throw the seeds away. He believed that someday, despite what his parents said, the seeds would grow. His belief wavered when his grandfather agreed with his parents, but he stuck to his stand. Arguments and tears were of no use, and he realised that he could not keep the boxes at his home, sooner or later, his mother would throw them out.

It was a week later that an idea struck him, he knew the perfect hiding place for his seeds and bulbs. They would be safe from people and protected too. He rushed to share it with his grandfather, who heard him out silently and agreed to help him.

Thus the next day, before the town awoke, both of them went to the spot where the fig tree grew. In the early morning light, Gautam clambered up the twisted trunk. With the help of his grandfather, he emptied the boxes of seeds and bulbs down the hollow of the tree. It was a tiring task and left him dirty and thirsty. But he walked home happy for he knew that he had saved many seeds.

Little did he know that he had given life to a brand new world.

And that is the start of a new adventure, one unknown yet to Gautam. Any guesses as to the new world and what role Gautam might play in that world. And how do you think Earth would fare? Do let me know, I would love to hear from you.