Cannonball

 

At Jadavpur University,

Opposite the Staff canteen

You may find a towering cannonball tree –

Standing even today

Its red and white flowers

And that soft lure of intoxication

Many a day, I recall

An old professor would pick

One fresh blossom,

And carry with him

His Potpourri for the day

Refreshing his musty room of yore

One day, I asked him

‘Sir, why do you like this so much?’

He smiled, smelled the bloom,

‘There’s not many with this perfume,

And also to remind myself

We are humans at end of day.’

I stared perplexed, he smiled,

‘We can be engineers, all right

But we cannot be God.’

He tore a petal and held it to me,

‘You can create cannonballs at will,

But try creating a single petal.’

I carry the lesson even today –

There are no cannonball trees here

Yet, every time I see a petal

Or smell a soft lingering aroma

I stop, and notice

The deep intoxication of a flowering bud

And remind myself,

We can be engineers

We can be architects…

Designers, artists, poets

Yet, we cannot create a basic bloom;

We are humbled

By His simplest deeds, 

And we surrender

Somewhere, 

Another cannonball flower blooms –

Perhaps, another mortal 

Understands divinity at last…

3rd July 2026