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Sunday, September 18, 2011

30. Whither Gardens



 





In a  gloomy world filled with  strife and conflict, gardens become a space where peace and beauty reign. The colours and textures splashed on the ground lures birds and butterflies. Students will find a quiet place to  hang out… to  engage  their senses.

For the poetic-minded, gardens can offer visions of  the invisible, grasp the intangible and hear the inaudible…It’s a place to work with silence. According to a  British  garden designer and artist, Gertrude Jekyll (1843-1932),  A garden is a grand teacher. It teaches patience and  careful watchfulness; it teaches industry and thrift; above all it teaches entire trust.

Schools in Europe have found  multiple benefits for school gardening.  It has been found that gardens give  scope  for children to  learn about water and energy cycles, the food chain, and the peculiar needs of individual species. When children  feel a sense of connection to a certain species or individual plant, they  will even have a reason to care about all the forces that impact that plant’s future. Even teachers can benefit from gardening in schools.  If they so desire they can transfer the gardening skills  to their  own homes which would  benefit their own health and the health of their families.
 
Recently, Dr. Prabodhachandran Nair, a  former Professor of Linguistics,  was invited  to a Workshop  organized at  the Regional Institute of Education (NCERT), Mysore. He was   deeply impressed by the layout of the campus and particularly its garden. In a  casual chat he narrated to me, his failure to  fulfil a  simple desire of his viz; to have a garden in the campus of the institution where he served for decades: 

The Professor asked  a newly appointed gardener to clear the weeds and shrubs and plant flower sprouting seedlings around the campus. Without trepidation,  the gardener told the Professor: “Sir I come from an elite Nair family of North Malabar and we never do such menial task”. The Professor adept at repartees quickly retorted “…well then  why don’t you take up the Asst. Collector’s  post now vacant in the  District Collectorate?      

It is a pity that despite the multiple benefits of gardening,  gardens are fast disappearing from  campuses in God’s Own Country, Kerala. The ‘one child one plant’ scheme, introduced by the State government  recently is indeed  commendable, but...  what next? 
 
Any comments or suggestions dear reader?

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