A couple of days into the national lockdown my work from home started being the new routine. To escape the miserable monotony of a blank wall and a closed space I ventured out into the balcony for a change of air.
I set up a small station of work there – a mat, a bamboo stool and a bottle of water. I settled in a corner near the many pots of plants which were left behind by previous tenant. I barely had time to look after them or in the current case, revive them. Amongst them there was one plant which, against all odds, lived on humbly and radiated a green aura.
I sat close to it and continued my work for that day. As the day ended I got up and I emptied the bottle of water into this pot of plant. For a moment, I thought I felt that the mud just gulped down the water heartily.
This routine continued on and I started feeling a sense of comfort sitting next to this plant. There was a coolness in the air that bounced off from its leaves and the green palette of the plant was very soothing to look at. As days passed, I gradually started pouring water to all the plants before I began my work and soon I started pruning the plants too. All the while, I could feel something growing in me and around me.
Recently on one day. as I was attending an office team call, I noticed the that creepers of a plant had started branching out to the wall next to me. I paused and observed, many of the plants had grown fuller. As I sat there it seemed the plants had grown and is holding me in an embrace.
It is an embrace that makes me feel green. Nowadays I tell others that I need to feel green and step out to sit amidst the plants. It is a unique feeling, one that is calming and invigorating. This corner has become a favorite place of my household members too. I see them sitting there while talking on the phone, or while thinking or while just doing nothing. For office video catch up calls and family zoom meetings also I pick this spot.
There is this inexplicable feeling I get that the more I seek from these plants the more they give. They heal me, make me smile and as I nurture them they nurture me too. It is now an ecosystem in itself where we coexist happily.
This little world that helps me live my day better was born from a small act. It is not an act of great courage but an act nevertheless. It made me a person who find it excruciating to see a fallen tree or a dying plant because now I understand what it is to touch a plant and feel life in it.
Melange 
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