Nature

As a very young girl I used to always think about which is the most productive profession/career which has tangible, physical results which can be seen and felt . I used to think of so many things and always used to come to the conclusion that growing plants is the best profession which can be really called productive.
I always used to be fascinated by small new leaves that grow on any plant. It used to be so lovely to see new leaves growing out of plants when I used to come out of the house in the morning to the garden to pluck the flowers to be used for the pooja by my mom or for us to put it on our plaits after tying it into a small strand of flowers. (Come to think of it, it must have been such a Sight to see us wearing some blue or pink flowers which we used to call as ' spatica')
Those were the days much before the talk of green house effect, and ozone layer and all those jargons. It used to be a laid back life though not in a small town but in a town growing into a big city! yeah it was Bangalore of fifties and sixities when it was called a Pensioner's paradise.
Not knowing anything scientifically about gardening all our spare time (we had lot of spare time as we did not have much home work though we had the general tuition and music classes) was spent in the garden . We used to dig with gusto to plant some seeds or some saplings which we brought over from friend's place. while digging the sundry stones which were picked up used to be kept separately as trophies! All sorts of plants used to be planted, some survived, some died and it was all part of growing up of plants as well as we kids.
Some body asked me once when I was a kid just like that, which animal I would rear if it is made compulsory by the Govt. that each individual should rear an animal. pat came my reply. Cow. Probabaly he was expecting me to say a dog or a cat so he was surprised and asked me why. I said because cow dung is a good manure for my garden, as I had heard some body telling that to my mom who was asking them for suggestion to improve her rose plants. How he roared with laughter.
We had a game among ourselves in the near by open ground which had lots of wild plants. Come to think of it, it was a sort of a botanical game cum memory game which we never realized then. We used to split into two groups and one group will pick leaves from the plants around and arrange it on a rock. The other group has to see it for a few minutes memorize it and then pick up the same leaves from around the wild plants. How I loved that game and how I wish I had some botanist telling me the names of those plants. Even now I can recognize some of those wild plants in some obscure places but still I don't know the botanical names as I never studied botony as a subject.
The thought process was continuous and I sort of concluded that the real productive profession is to grow any useful plant and I always thought Rice/Paddy was the most useful plant as we were rice eaters.
When I sit and look back I realize though, simple and silly how right the mind/thought of that little girl was about growing any thing is productive.
Each one of us should grow a little plant in the space available. This way certain extent the green can be increased in and around us.
I see a lot of place wasted in the flats where maintainance is not very good. common areas are wasted as it is no body's property and no body wants to take the trouble of watering even if some one plants some kind of plant. Even if we live in an araprtment having just a little tulasi plant in the window sill will contribute to nature . It is going to give us such a sweet feeling to watch each new leaf grow.