Just Thinking...

In childhood, we had three small gardens/ kyaari of plants and flowers - one for each sibling. Each had plenty of roses and other flowers in it - mine had white roses and its plant climbed over our house's walls to reach even the roof. We kids used to maintain our gardens, water the plants, remove the weeds, also apply ash as insecticide at times. Till our younger sister was a too young, my elder sis and I used to maintain her garden also. Once father planted a coconut plant each in my sisters' gardens and also three Ashoka trees which have over the years grown into big trees. We also had guava trees, papaya plants and lemon trees - in which many birds made their nests, tweeted around the branches and played hide-and-seek with us.

I think growing up took so much toll that I closed all those nice real memories in a shell and tried to behave as if nothing really happened. About two years back when we moved to our own flat, my wife bought many plants and we kept several flower pots in our balcony. Since then, we see flowers in our balcony daily; we water the plants; worry about them on vacations; and rush to see them first thing when we are home. She also managed to grow some green chilies in the flowerpots! Of course we have Tulsi ji in one pot too; and she leaves children before going dry every time.

When children traveled far, our mothers would give us something to cling on - a hanman chalisa, some beaded garland, or some piece of cloth. Once I saw a stranger boy on the road bringing out his wallet which had passport size pics of both his parents - how positive was the feeling! I think the idea is to keep us connected to our true self... This is how human civilizations survive and keep moving without losing the soul...