Here's where it started. It was the August of 2019, almost a year back from now. We reached Chennai Airport after a 3-day vacation at Puducherry. As soon as we got out of our cab, a volunteer approached us and handed over a packet each to the both of us. It read - towards a Greener world. The volunteer said that the packets have one seed each and insisted that we sow it in the city where we are headed. We hardly noticed it in the hurry to enter the airport. Unknowingly, I might have put the packets in my sling bag. We were clueless about how this small thing will impact us for the next year and maybe beyond that.
If you are wondering that the packet had a substance which we were not supposed to carry on the flight, you are absolutely wrong. Sorry to have disappointed you, but this is not that story :)
The packet contained exactly what the volunteer had mentioned. I had completely forgotten about it and got hold of the packet only while unpacking a couple of days after we reached Hyderabad. Out of curiosity, we decided to sow the first seed in our small balcony garden and reserve the second one. Thus started our wait for it to yield a plant. The fact that we had no idea what is it to develop into increased our curiosity each day. I remember both of us visiting the balcony multiple times a day to see if the shoot is out yet. With our previous limited experience, we expected to see growth within a few days, or in a maximum of a week. But weeks passed without any signs of life. It was almost a month now and we decided that we will try sowing the second seed in the same space, just beside the earlier seed. Again the cycle of patience and curiosity resumed, but with a slightly lesser enthusiasm this time. At the back of our minds, we were thinking that the seeds had gone bad.
But one fine rainy morning, a tiny shoot was out from the first seed. We were excited. The next thing we wanted to know was what plant it was. We kept guessing and it took us almost another month till we actually figured out that it was a Neem Tree that we were trying to grow in our balcony. In the mean time, the second seed yielded a shoot, Neem again. We used to adore the delicate new leaves coming up on the long stems. It was quite a sight to see both plants grow in the same space competing on new leaves, freshness and height. But we always knew that the plants can't grow in that space and beyond a point, we will have to give those up.
It has been almost a year now and the signs are clearer. The roots are not being contained in the limited space, the stem is leaning. It is not the case that we have never seen plants wither away in our garden. But this is Neem, which has a longer life and huge scope of growth as compared to most other plants that we had. We decided to shift the plants to the common area in our society before it's too late. We will not be able to see and adore the plants so often as we do, but the anticipation of those growing up and becoming big trees acts as a comfort. And besides, we can always place a quick visit.
This episode reiterated a few facts that we subconsciously know but don't realise till such a time comes.
Fact #1 - Patience is a great virtue to have and to practice.
Fact #2 - Letting go is difficult always.
Fact #3 - Affection and attachment are natural, but they are counterproductive if they hinder growth.
Fact #4 - There is always a brighter side to things.
We are all set to replace the space with new saplings or seeds very soon and will are ready to go through the grind of patience, curiosity, joy and sadness again.
