Try Gardening for peace

                      by Priyanka Chauhan

I always enlisted ‘Gardening’ in the hobby column of my Resume thinking I would definitely do it ardently one day. However, this word rested for almost a decade in that space till the birth of my son, when I decided to finally shun off all excuses and smear myself with the wonders of the wonders-Nature.

My initial inspiration to have been awestruck with the extravaganza of the green world began when I used to see my mother plant saplings. As far as my memory can loom large and remember those yesteryears when she would plant, plant and plant in her seldom precious leisure hours. 

Tender Spinach, red turnip, browny Potatoe, ornamental chillies will be the show of our Kitchen garden  at backyard. In retrospect, I now zoom in to capture and understand the bliss she experienced while harvesting her crops and cook a meal out of her produce. Too young to appreciate her enthusiasm back then, I truly salute her spirit of gardening which she never really shared with anyone because nobody understood that divine pleasure, that soft feeling to be one with the nature.

Today, that kitchen space is no more. To keep apace with the time and limited resources, the kitchen garden had to be dislodged in order to make space for our study rooms. Those juicy Guava and Pomegranate trees are no longer standing barefoot to observe us frolicking around the garden. Mango tree is gone too. So is the mighty banyan tree with the robust red flower!

Much against my mother’s wishes, those rooms snatched away her Garden of Eden. She became sad but the move was justified in the wake of ‘need for space’. She silently fell in line with the argument.

Years later, all the trash bins, empty cans, paint buckets, rusted vase, plastic bags and mugs, a broken bowl, earthen pot are filled with the beauty of nature. 

A case in point which illustrated her passion for gardening goes back to the time when a pillar was uprooted from our patio in one of the government’s drive. The smell of fresh soil and sight of pure red soil underneath that pillar made her run from pillar to the post to collect more soil and compost before that deep hole was filled.  Within two days, she collected sufficient compost which was to go into the several feet deep hole and out of which a budding shrubs of Madhumalati were to swing and sway showering us with flowers of red and white.

Birth to my son renewed my interest in Gardening. I see it as a legacy. It’s my responsibility as her daughter to carry forward her interest and grow plants and grow together with them. Secondly, it had always been my interest. The delivery made me realise my son was also a little seed of planted love. His care was my responsibility. The act of bringing up children is as joyous as raising beds of vegetables and bask in their glory. For this and to many other reasons, look forward for more posts on Gardening.

You can tell me what made you take up Gardening?