The Little Garden in a Concrete Jungle

Though I was born in Bangalore, the city is slowly losing its charm on me as it gets transformed entirely into a concrete jungle. On my recent visit to my parents apartment, I was pleasantly surprised to see a few young men, all techies working in IT companies, tending to a small vegetable garden in an unused, inaccessible piece of land amidst concrete structures in the high-rise apartment complex.

It was inspiring to see these men with green thumbs from different parts of India working together to tend to this "little garden in a concrete jungle". These men have kept up with their work despite several threats to close it down.  With this post, I show my solidarity and wish them great success. I hope this garden will inspire many many more gardens in our once "Garden City".

Why is a garden so important??

1) Gardening is an essential form of education. A garden sparks the imagination of children.They can witness the miracle of seeing things grow and Mother Earth's bounty.
    - A garden is a grand teacher. It teaches patience and careful watchfulness; 
     it teaches industry   and thrift; above all it teaches entire trust.
  - Why try to explain miracles to your kids when you can just have them plant a garden
2) A garden helps us understand ourselves and the food that sustains us.
    - To own a bit of ground, to scratch it with a hoe, to plant seeds and watch 
      the renewal  of life.  This is the commonest delight of the race, 
      the most satisfactory thing a man can do. 
   - To forget how to dig the earth and to tend the soil is to forget ourselves - Gandhi
3) A garden gives unlimited happiness
    - If you want to be happy for a lifetime, be a gardener - Chinese proverb
    - Whoever loves and understands a garden will find contentment within.
    - A garden is a friend you can visit any time. 
    - Gardening is cheaper than therapy and you get tomatoes.
4) Spirituality of gardening
    - The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature. 
      To nurture a garden is to feed not just the body, but the soul.
    - One is never closer to God than in the Garden.
5) A garden teaches us to slow down. In the rat race that we live in and in our ever maddening rush, a garden teaches us to slow down to the pace that nature intended.

   - Everything that slows us down and forces patience, everything that sets us back 
     into the slow circles of nature, is a help. Gardening is an instrument of grace.

6) A garden brings people together and builds community. 

   - Gardens and flowers have a way of bringing people together, drawing them from their homes.  

Pristine to polluted: Our daily choices matter ..

My father was digging up a new larger patch for a vegetable garden in our backyard in my native village Mundur, Kerala. We dug a few feet below the soil and to my utter dismay, we unearthed several plastic items, plastic bag, bottles, lids and toys. We looked for a new spot and the same story there too. The plastic was choking the earth everywhere!

 

Straw broom or plastic broom

We were digging up what my relatives have been burying for the last several decades. Most of the state of Kerala is densely populated. Every house hold is responsible for disposing off their own garbage as there are no dumping grounds or landfills unless you dumped in someone else's backyard. Each house had a septic tank that took care of toilet wastes. All other household items like wooden furniture, steel/iron or aluminum utensils were buried in the backyard and it slowly decomposed over time. Garbage disposal was a non-issue until the introduction of plastics in rural India a few decades ago.

Garbage disposal is now a nightmare in rural areas. People are left with only two choices, to bury them or burn them. In Kerala, we have run out of space for burying and people have started burning plastic in their backyard. We all know the great dangers of burning plastic which includes cancer and several respiratory diseases. The once pristine air is now polluted with dangerous chemicals created when plastic burns. 

We have to wake up and evaluate our everyday choices. We have to return to the "old" ways of living or the day is not too far before we choke in our own filth! 

Ennennum Ende Keralam....Forever, my Keralam

Words can't explain my fondness for this land which is my ancestral home. Mother nature is in her abundant glory here. The ever fertile soil, the thick vegetation, the pouring rain and the scorching heat. My fondest childhood memories are set against this backdrop. The lush greenery is deeply entrenched in every crevice of my brain and fills my soul to the brim. This serenity I carry with me everywhere I go....

Lula : A majestic new mom

It was exciting times when I was in my ancestral village Mundur. Lula, a stray dog from the area had chosen a big mound in front of our house as the safe haven to birth her pups.

My aunt told me that Kanni maasam ( Malayalam month Kanni – zodiac sign Virgo ) is the mating season for the dogs. It was early December and almost a month had passed since Lula delivered. My paternal aunts and uncle hadn't seen the pups yet. They were waiting anxiously everyday. The day, I arrived from the city with my two kids was the day the pups chose to see daylight for the first time. We were all very excited and counted a total of five adorable pups.

Lula was an amazing mom. She caressed them so lovingly and licked them all over before letting them suckle. It was a beautiful sight to watch. Over the next few days I watched Lula closely and saw how she tended to her pups all alone relying only on her instinctive knowledge.

She would sleep only when the pups returned to the safety of their hole after every feed. The only time she was away was to get her own food. No other dogs were allowed anywhere in the vicinity of her mound. She was very aggressive if she sensed one nearby and barked fiercely. She was fine with us humans close by as she figured we meant no harm.

She was wild and free and yet domesticated in many ways by the close proximity of humans. She lived life on her terms, roamed free, socialized with the other stray dogs, she mated and birthed every year following the rhythms of nature. It was a joy watching her live her life in complete freedom!

Nature's nurturing ways and infinite love bestowed on every mother continues to amaze me day after day!"God could not be everywhere, and therefore he made mothers." - Rudyard Kipling

Medicines from the Wilderness

A few minutes walk from my ancestral home in Mundur, Palakkad is the "Ayurveda Raw Drugs Collection Centre". It has been here for decades and I have walked past it many many times without casting a glance in that direction. On my recent trip back home, I was curious to go in and take a look.

 

 

I walked in with my father. The warehouse had heaps and heaps of dry leaves, stems, barks, roots stacked up to the ceiling. These raw materials are dried, powdered and sent to the Arya Vaidya Pharmacy in Coimbatore where they are mixed and processed to make Ayurvedic medicines to treat all kinds of ailments. The staff at the center revealed to us the potency of these wild medicines when compared to their farmed local varieties. All local, insipid varieties are rejected. Wild black peppers and gooseberries I learnt are very high in medicinal value. 

A native community of medicine men leave early in the morning in small groups to collect these materials. They climb up the mountains and walk all over the wild forested areas and return late afternoon carrying large bundles on their head. These men are experts in identifying medicinal herbs and they know the landscape like the palm of their hands. 

Later in the evening, as I was talking to my paternal aunt about my visit and she told me about the extraordinary health of these men. The daily physical labor and the scent of the medicinal herbs in the pure mountain air was enough to keep them in the peak of health upto a ripe old age.

We are steadily losing these wild areas to cultivation and massive clearing for so called rural development. The key to our health lies deep inside the untouched wilderness. When the wilderness is lost, the ancient medicines and cures will be lost forever. We must preserve and protect the wilderness. The destiny of the wilderness is the destiny of mankind!

"In wilderness is the preservation of the world" - Henry David Thoreau 

"In God's wildness lies the hope of the world - the great fresh unblighted, unredeemed wilderness" - John Muir