Discourse On A Garden

Vital for healthy living.

- Priyanka Chauhan

My house is in the hills above Trujillo. A very simple place. Pinkstones that warm in the sun. A kitchen garden that smells of herbs in the day, jasmine in the evening. Through the gate is a giant poplar. Figs, apples, pears. The soil, Marcus- black. Black like my wife’s hair. Grapes on the south slopes, olives on the north.” this is how General Maximus of the Gladiator played by Russel Crowe explains his house to his frail emperor.

My first brush with the wonderful world of gardening happened in the early 90s when I saw my mother sprinkling tiny seeds in our kitchen garden. Tender spinach, brown spuds, red tomatoes, lady fingers, pristine radish, king brinjal – all danced to my mother’s tune. The harvest was aplenty too. The produce from the garden was enough to cook three meals a day. In fact, she would share the excess with neighbours.

The joy of cooking a meal with freshly grown herbs was boundless. Ask any gardener. Happiness for them, is synonymous with gardening. It puts them into the “present moment” breaking the mundane and mindless continuum of everyday existence.

Nurturing a mother-child equation

Nurturing a garden is purely a labour of love. It’s a feeling which a mother experiences while fostering the most cherished part of her being, her child – much like the supreme joy of watching children grow inch by inch, in all abundance, spreading the bountiful colours of their innocence all over.

“The act of spotting tiny buds from seeds you had sown is like holding a newborn in your arms for the very first time. The excitement and joy experienced is limitless. Almost surreal,” says homemaker Krishna Chauhan, an amateur gardener since her childhood. A mere sapling which sprouts into a full-fledged tree endows inner joy, besides blowing the siren of peace, she adds with confidence and pride.