My Nature Diary.
A childhood experience that felt 100% real, authentic and natural to me.
A childhood experience that felt 100% real, authentic and natural to me.
What can I say. In Mumbai,When I was hardly 6,I vividly remember having this deep desire to plant an apple tree. According to my friend's and my concept(from a textbook at school!) ,planting an "apple tree" was sowing seeds in the soil ,watering it and then urging it to grow. I mean, we were too naive to realize that a lot had to be done in order to grow a full apple tree. We brought seeds of the apple we just devoured over and merrily sowed it.Then, we waited and waited. Spoke to the unborn sapling urging/pleading/threatening it to grow. It never did grow but for our sake, a loving maid had planted a tulsi and we happily kept feeding water to our lovely new sapling. And to this day, it still stands strong! :)
And another time when I was drawn close to nature was when I was studying in Bahrain.My parents love gardening so it is obviously very much ingrained in my genes as well. We had so many flowers, tomatoes growing in our garden.The cactus ,the creepers ,the hibiscus ,the roses,the sunflowers and marigolds! Oh,A sight to behold,indeed! You know the point is not about growing numerous plants or colorful flowers or fruits in a garden .The point is about what one gains out of it. Firstly ,these flowers and fruits attracts us to delve into meaningless or strange or peaceful conversations with the unspoken yet one of the most beautiful beings the Almighty has ever created.Imagine...what would this earth be without flowers and fruits ! A barren land? So unthinkable right!
I remember Mom ,Dad & me , had mastered the art of watering plants. Like I stated many blog posts back,The art of watering plants is something of a world of talent altogether.Why.Simply because it shows ,or the plant can sense the positive vibes you are sending across them.If you splash a bucket of water on them every single day and weep they aren't growing fast enough or beautiful enough.The answer stabs at you ..Learn to pour a circle of water GENTLY around the plant.Got me? AROUND THE PLANT. You know ,there are people who whisper prayers for their plants to grow bountifully. And the secret is,The sapling knows what you think. It can sense. If you notice,plants grow immensely in the hearts of the warm hearted. It abhors negative vibes.Even on stormy days, a plant grows faithfully in a home filled with bliss and peace.
Another incident dates back to when I was very young.Around 8 or so in Chennai during my summer vacation. Grandpa and us grand daughters used to be up at noon time and help him water all the plants and trees within our house compound.We had mango trees ,neem trees,coconut trees ,tulsi, tomatoes ,bitter guards and what not! We practically had the whole raw kitchen in there. Any emergency? Head right into our garden. :) Grandma used to send coconuts during the peak season to all our relatives living in Chennai as a gesture of good will and season's greetings. Grandpa and all of us cousins used to mount tall stools to reach the nearest mango branch and click as many photos plucking juicy mangoes and gorging over them. What a blast we used to have! I mean ,the whole process of climbing those mango trees and fetching every ripe mango during the peak summer season.My.. :)
Those really were the summery delights of our days.Summers have gone,winters have gone,But no Summer flooded us with the happiness ,nature got us that summer of '98.
And today when the ancestral home is no more ours, it gives us pain for all the nature adventures we had in there. As kids ,we used to consider our garden a forest and strut around like zombies on the loose.We used to spot mongoose in our garden.So obviously snakes scared the living hell out of us. The crows and sparrows came for little fruits.The dogs came. Cats came. Nature stood still and we never overcame ,the masterpieces of yonder.