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II

As soon as the police had gone, the press arrived. They came in a van. Two male
reporters and a girl with a camera.

The reporters began to ask a lot of questions. Who was the old gentleman in the tree?
What was he doing there? Why did he go up? When did he go up? How did he go up?

I told them about his fight against the cutting of trees and the construction of flats.
The daylight was fading. But it did not prevent the girl from taking photos. She clicked
this way and that way. She took a photo of the neem tree. She took a photo of the sign

board. A photo of our house.

‘You had better leave the place,’ I told the reporters. ‘My grandpa is getting angry. When
he is angry, anything can happen.’
One of them noted down what I said in his note book. Then they got into the van and left.

A small thing hit my ear and I looked up. Grandpa had very good aim. ‘Sathya, I am very

hungry. Go and bring a pencil and paper,’ he said.
I stared up at him. ‘Are you going to eat pencil and paper?’ Grandpa shouted, ‘Hurry up,
go and do as I say. It is getting dark.’

By the time I got back, the street lights had come on.

‘Now listen carefully. Write down what I tell you. I need all these things.’ ‘What do you
need on a tree?’ I asked.

I was wrong again. He gave me a long
list of things he needed. They were:
a torch light, a book, a newspaper, a

blanket, a pillow, a pen and notepad, a
flask of hot coffee, two slices of bread,
biscuits, a packet of groundnuts.

I collected all the things with some
difficulty. Then, a new problem arose.
How was I to send the things up to torch light, book,
grandpa? I made a kind of pulley. blanket, pillow,
newspaper,
I made use of some wires and coat bread,
pen and notepad,
hot coffee,
hangers. I put all the things, in a plastic groundnuts
biscuits,
bucket. Then, I asked him to haul the
bucket up. It went up easily. He praised
me for my intelligence.

He unpacked the bucket, sitting quite comfortably. There was an orange glow from the
street light. It was a calm night. The sky was black. The air was warm. I walked up the

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