Sunday 30 October 2011

Resilience

Old I may be, but still smile when some song in the background sounds like lines from my life. For sometime now, it has been UB40's lines "Every hour of every day I'm learning more, the more I learn, the less I know about before, the less I know, the more I want to look around, digging deep for clues on higher ground" ..... No, it has not been my kids teaching me valuable lessons (they do in every action of theirs), this time it is my gardening attempt!


I began early in September after shaking off a lot of "gardening baggage". Plants in 3 pots began from seeds and two were plants my dear parents sent from 350kms away. All seemed to be going good till some fauna discovered my flora .... They began with the coriander, onto the methi, my maharaja prasarini and now my tulsi (all four with great medicinal properties). All that remains in 4 pots are nice green stems and of course, healthy pigeons, squirrels and rats :(


Resilient are those who grow anything green. It's not as natural as it seems, I learnt! Resilient are those pigeons, squirrels and rats that get past physical barriers and brave life forms like my kids and I who are present a few feet away and nibble my greens. But I discovered - the most resilient of them all is this ficus on the edge of our balcony - it has been pulled out n number of times, it has been doused with neem oil, salt and no love - yet it grows back, stands there watching my antics. Ironic it is!! The only good out of this is my 5 year old seeing the connection between us, our plants and the animals - he knew a song about 'the connection', now he sees it too ....


I would not know which resilient I would want to be but I know this much, if you want to stand up and want to be counted, resilience is one quality you need - you just need to bounce back and try again - like I will ..... just like all the green thumbs, the fauna & flora surviving in the city with a special mention of the ficus.