Vana mahotsava

(In our schools, we used to celebrate vana - forest mahotsava - festival and plant some saplings, in the month July) 

Every time I visit my parent's home, I bring enough plants to make a tasty curry. 

Well, greed or desire does not age. Like Shankaracharya said "Limbs have withered, teeth have decayed,  walks with the help of a stick. still desire does not leave him".  One might be old, but one can still want to posses things, many, many, many things.

And the desire for plants is not very selfish either. May be it is my "squirrel service" - a teeny tiny contribution to save the planet. 

But bringing the plants home does not end the task, it is just beginning. I need to plant them, and nurture them and grin from ear to ear (or jump up and down depending on the mood) when a tiny bud appears in them.  

The first problem is where do I plant them. Luckily for me, I have tiny garden with actual soil in it. But unluckily that garden is shadowed, shaded by a large mango tree, snatching away each bit of sun ray. So that place is unsuitable for any flowering plant. 

There is a big terrace though. But terrace does not have soil - so I need to hunt for soil as well as containers for these plants. The lazy me (and cheap) does not want to step out of the house for getting these containers.  So I search around the house and get tiny discarded pots and scrape some soil and try to find home for each plant.

But the plants are plenty and my patience is limited - very much so. I want to throw away everything, forgetting my desire for flowers, my will to save the planet. 

And soil - where is the soil? The soil is below all the tall buildings mushrooming in this city. It is below the asphalted roads. It is below concrete in our houses. And in some occasions, it is in the drains clogging them. 

To conclude, I have planted half the stock, I have brought and left the other half in water, hoping I will get some idea on how to plant them.

The end result :