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I think I have taken this trait from my
mother. She was also very close to the nature, the plants and the fauna. She
wanted to grow everything, having been born and brought up in still interior village. Always the rustic
and primitive trees, plants fruits and flowers fascinated us. For example when
we were in Raichur, I used to love these fruits we used to call “ Farm
Hunasekai”, which I have never seen since leaving that place except may be once
or twice when I had visited some remote villages. How I long for that fruit
even now! And then used to thrive on
Bore hannu, Mavinakai, Seebe kai, Badami
hannu and what not!
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That craving, that yearning still persists.
You take me to big malls with fancy cakes, chocolates and ice creams, they just
appear to me as good artistic creations. But drive me through a farm or village
and I salivate looking at every plant of fruit and vegetable!
And my mother understood this. Everyday
when I was back from school, some wonderful aroma of fruit would be inviting
me. Worried that I would refuse to eat food if I am given fruits, she would
hide them, but boy, can she hide their aroma! I would insist that there are
fruits in the house and I want them and with a pseudo-ire she would take out
the vessel on the condition that I get them only after I ate my lunch.
Being the youngest of the five children, I
had certain special privileges. On the way back from school in Hospet, a town with
sugar factory, there used to be a sugarcane vendor. You would get an entire
length of cane for all of ten paises. At least once or twice a week, I used to
have that sweet sugar cane craving and my mom would send my sister or brother
with me to buy sugarcane. Unlike present times, we never used to cut them with
knife. Both myself and my mother would enjoy the sugar cane biting them with
our bare teeth. And at such rendezvous she would narrate the tales of how as a
young village girl, she would enjoy the fruits in her native village.
Coming from a very tiny backward village,
she was made to wear a saree at a tender age of 10. She along with her friends
would stealthily run to the farm, pick the Mangoes, Jamun fruits guava etc and
carry them in her pallu and eat at a village well and then run to the house.
Unfortunately, her pallu used to be give away, carrying all the colours of her
fruits and made her mother very angry. Ajji would admonish her, but her anger
would last barely for a few minutes, she being very well aware of her daughter's craving for fruits.
We used to grow Jowar and in our Raichur house there used to be hoards of gunny
bags filled with grains, which my mother used to barter for fruits. Yes! Back
then in the sixties the barter system still existed. We used to buy fruits with our
grains!
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And these plants have been my teachers.
Constantly giving me the lessons of life, helping me to look at the world in a
very pragmatic and positive way, always filling
me with hope and a very positive energy. Like a mother, in a subtle
way they impart those quality lessons
which make one look at life, at the
world in a very realistic yet optimistic way.
I would narrate how a few of the plants
taught me the lessons of life.
Back in 2000-2001, when I got a little time
after my first pregnancy and child birth, I had bought my first set of
Crysanthamam - sevanthige plants from Indo American Hybrid seeds. The saplings
were sold at a very small price of 5 rupees each and they were of exceptionally
good quality. Within a few months, it was
Shravana Maasa, a festive season and
for Swarnagowri Vratha, my plants were blooming with hundreds of beautiful
flowers in tiny plants. They were the cynosure of all the eyes. And after a
month or so, all the flowers shriveled. Unable to bear the emptiness, I bought a new set.
After a few months the companionship took a break as it was the time for the
arrival for my daughter.
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Ain't it a lesson for me? Neither to cry over
spoiled milk nor to break a relation that has gone sour, but to cut the
negative thoughts, memories and feelings at the root and allow fresh feelings
to grow and pass on???
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And then there are Cosmos flowers, my favorite because of their vibrant colors and the very very easy way to grow and maintain. You just have to have one plant and within months your garden will be full of new plants and flowers. As with the chrysanthemum, when my first plant of Cosmos started to dry, I tried to adopt the same method. Alas, you can't have the same medicine for all the diseases!
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What it taught me? Don't let your ideas,
thoughts and dreams go stale! Use them, nurture and them let them flourish. So
that more and more new ideas and hopes are born!
Look at these tiny little plants on my
slope roof. Leave alone going there, I can't even reach them to mend or water
them or care them in any way. How did they grow there?
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Let me take you through an anecdote. This
was a very very old incident. Long back when my son was barely three years old.
One day when I came back from office, he was nowhere to be seen at home. On
inquiring, I was told that he was upstairs playing with his cousins. It was a
three storied house and he had never gone to play there. A bit concerned, I
went upstairs and what I saw there made my head spin. The blood rushed to my
head and my heart was in my mouth. While the other children were playing on the
terrace, he sat there, enjoying their game on the parapet wall with his legs
sprawled on both sides!!!
I was terrified to even think what his
reaction would be if he senses my arrival and turns or tries to get down. With
my heart pounding in my chest and palms wet with sweat running all over my
body, I walked as fast as I could and held him tight. I was extremely grateful
to God for saving my kid but the fear lingered.
In my new house there is a parapet wall
above the slope roof and if anybody so much as go near the wall or try sitting
there I can't even bear to stand there. So to discourage anybody from sitting
there, I have arranged tiny pots there with Tulasi plants. And as I told earlier,
Cosmos plants breed themselves and some had grown along with these Tulasi
plants.
And then there came my ancestors, all
adventurous and doing monkey business. These un-welcomed guests would arrive at
their will not only ruining my plants but also my peace of mind. One day there
was a blank in the row of the Tulasi plants and as I was in a hurry I didn't
think much. But on a Sunday when I was mending my plants leisurely and walking
around the terrace, I was surprised to see Cosmos flowers smiling up at me from
the slope roof! While Monkeys were playing mischief around, the pot must have
slipped there, but the tiny plant had not only survived the ordeal, but also
was growing and flowering!!!
Troubles and problems are part of life but
the thrill, the pleasure you experience when you overcome them has to be
experienced to be believed. Even in the plants and fauna, there is this grit to survive. So when there is strength and willingness to fight back
and survive, there is nothing that can stop you. Period.
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Look at these three bitter gourds. All
grown by me in the same creeper. From the same seed. watered and tended
equally. Without any bias. Then why are they so different? You can't even blame
fate or luck :-) So whom are you going
to blame? The fate? The caretaker? They all had the same soil, same genes,
same environment and the same care. Still they grew differently. Is in internal strength, the will or what's it?
The message, the lesson???
Change what you can't accept and accept what you
can't change.
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