Our Balcony Garden: Our Little Blissful Mind – By Dinggi (Author of Hookah Hits!)

Poornima was trying her luck on a typical afternoon between taking a nap and staying alert at “Our Balcony Garden Boutique”. She was alerted by a client- they were a mother-daughter duo. The mother is a Doctor at a very reputed hospital in Mangalore and the daughter is a 7-year-old kid. The mother confessed that she was new to this boutique and the only reason she was here is because her daughter was very keen on visiting this place. Mother said that every day they would pass by the boutique and the daughter would plead to visit the place.

 

What caught the daughter’s eye in the middle of the city that was surrounded by shopping malls and food joints is her love for plants. She had not witnessed, that the city has a place where they display and sell live plants! Poornima greeted the kid’s enthusiasm with surprise and challenge.

The kid looked around with her bright and inquisitive eyes.

“How do plants die, Aunty?” She enquired.

With a smile, Poornima said, “Sometimes you over water them or sometimes you deprived them from water, micro nutrients or fertilizers. Also the weather plays a very big role!”

Pointing out at the Jade Bonsai, she says, “I have seen smaller Jades. Do you have them?” “Yes we do!” Replied Poornima.

“Wow, are those tomatoes? How long do they take to grow?” she probed. “Well they take about 20 to 30 days to reach maturity.” Answered Poornima.

“Why is the entire cactus different from each other?”

“Well they all belong to different variety.”

 

As the Daughter was looking around each and every plant, she was simultaneously asking their names, their characteristic and their requirements; Poornima, at the same time saw the delight in her mother as well. The mother was also educating herself through her daughter’s interest. What struck Poornima was that how children are naturally curious and with time and age they lose that. Only if we could help ourselves to be open to learning at every stage in life, it would motivate us to become more aware of our natural surroundings.

 

As a parent sometimes we do get worked up answering children’s questions, and that’s okay, after all we all do require our space. But what we have to remember is that we should not let their urge to learn die because of our mood swings. We can always tell them the truth, make ourselves physically and mentally available and do a follow up, like how the mother was not able to visit the place before but she made sure that when she had the time she brought her daughter and at the same time participated with her blissful mind!

 

Before leaving she asked, “Aunty, do you teach gardening?”

“Yes, of course!” Poornima exclaimed.