What A Wonderful World | Flash Post 459

Button, the unmistakable Louis Armstrong sang:
I see trees of green
Red roses too
I see them bloom
For me and you
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world…

What lovely lyrics!

Every morning when I go out to meet and greet my babies, I mean my plants in the terrace garden, I am greeted by them too. I actually see them shake a leg, bobbing up and down to the rustling sound of the cool morning breeze—in other words—just to show they’re happy to see me!

Ha! Your imagination’s running riot again!

They also surprise me often with a budding shoot or a tiny flower bud that’s about to bloom or a fresh bouquet of flowers. The palette of colours in that garden would make it difficult for any landscape artist to choose the right shade of, say, a pink or a magenta or a yellow, a red, a purple or a green! The kind of joy those plants and shrubs bring to my life every morning is immense!

We are truly fortunate to have this garden in the heart of this bustling and chaotic city.

You know why the garden looks the way it does, Button?

Tell me.

Besides the gardener doing his thing, it’s the conversation and the camaraderie we share! It’s also the music I play everyday. Music has a way of calming, of taking us to a happy place. When I fell into depression, one of the first things my psychiatrist told me to do was to listen to music and that really helped me heal quicker. Like humans, animals and plants also respond positively to music.

That’s wonderful!

The other nice thing I notice every morning is that the plants seem well-rested, fresh and turned out in their best attire. A pink lily suspended from a branch seems like a pair of danglers the plant has worn to greet me. When I notice new leaves on a plant, I liken it to a new dress the plant is wearing because it wants to look good for me! There’s one creeper with beautiful white flowers called Star of Bethlehem. It seems like it has braided its tresses with strings of these pretty white flowers.

That’s a nice way of putting it! I have noticed the way you interact with those plants calling out to them by names you have given them. Would you mind terribly if I asked you to share some of those names?

Well, one is the same creeper that has tiny star-like white flowers which actually goes by the name of Star of Bethlehem! The botanical name for this is Ornithogalum Umbellatum! To simplify things, I call it Twinkle. There are bare branches of the bougainvillea plant that have done their job of bearing flowers but are still standing majestically because it’s the new branches stemming from the old ones that bear the flowers now. I have named those branches Woody because Woody Allen is one of my favourite Hollywood directors. One is called Padmaja because she’s the most colourful plant out there and reminds me of a character from one of our shows! There’s a plant with heart-shaped leaves who I call Queen of Hearts. Another one with white spots that look like snowflakes falling from the sky is Snowwhite. There are two Brahma Kamal plants that flower once a year and is supposedly a shrub. That plant has grown so tall that it comes right up to my waist and I call her Rapunzel after a fairy tale where a princess with waist-length hair gets locked up in an ivory tower and a prince climbs up with the help of her hair to rescue her. There’s a stunning plant with stunning pink leaves who I call Barbie!

I love the way they get decked up during Diwali and Christmas!

That’s your boro-didi’s doing! Never has a year gone by when they have not been included in the family celebrations where all of us deck them up to look their festive best!

Doesn’t Mojo and Mowgli feel left-out?

Why would they when I give them as much love as I give my plant babies!