Surely BBMP, which seems, sometimes, to go out of its way to cut down full-grown trees, can take a leaf out of the book of these people, who own a shop in Vyalikaval.
Messrs. P Mohanlal Bhanwarlal, who run a jewellery and pawnbroker’s shop near Chowdiah Memorial Hall, decided that, as devout Jains, they could not offer "himsa" to the living tree; therefore, they actually built their shop around it.
Doesn’t the presence of the tree hinder the customers? "Actually," say the owners, "Our customers are happy to see this, and the way you saw it and came in, it is actually an attraction to the shop."
I have seen many other houses where the tree is retained, and part of the facade redesigned to accomodate it; but never before have I seen a house where the actual workspace is given up to the tree!
However, I have a question that occurred to me only when I was looking at the photograph now…how on earth do they switch on that ceiling fan? 🙂 ⊕