A banyan tree

There was a banyan tree on a street in a big city. It stood on the roadside,with its branches spread all around it, and with its roots hanging like an old witch's long hair. During day time it stood there watching the heavy traffic on the road and the busy crowd passing beneath its shadows,while the lovely wind would ruffle its leaves and they would acknowledge the wind by nodding happily. Some tired person would take a minute's rest or two, but then he/she too would hurry and disappear in the masses. At night it slept, beside a sodium vapour lamp, with its leaves quiet, with the gentle wind passing soothingly through its branches. The late night traffic would sometimes wake it from its peaceful sleep, and then the tree would wonder at the passengers.

There were two girls, who used to pass by that road, late at night, after their work, in a bus. They used to look at the banyan tree which stood in the shadows of the enormous building behind it and would say, "It looks like a witch!". They would look at it every day and admire it, for it was one of the sights which made them happy along their boring journey back home. The banyan tree had also noticed its friends, and would wait for them every night before it slept. It never spoke to them, but would nod gently with its leaves at its friends; those friends whose dreams and aspirations would bloom and wander along with the wind, in the starry night.