“Johnsy has one chance in - let us say, ten,” said the doctor to a shocked Sue, as he shook down the mercury in his clinical thermometer. Mr. Pneumonia was not what you would call a chivalric old gentleman.
Johnsy’s eyes were open wide. She was looking out the window and counting - counting backward.
“Twelve,” she said, and little later “eleven”; and then “ten,” and “nine”; and then “eight” and “seven”, almost together.
“What is it, dear?” asked Sue.
“Six,” said Johnsy, in almost a whisper. “They’re falling faster now. Three days ago there were almost a hundred. It made my head ache to count them. But now it’s easy. There goes another one. There are only five left now.”
“Five what, dear? Tell your Susie.”
“Leaves. On the ivy vine. When the last one falls I must go, too. I’ve known that for three days. Didn’t the doctor tell you?”
Old Behrman was a painter who lived on the ground floor beneath Sue and Johnsy.
Sue told him of Johnsy’s fancy, and how she feared she would, indeed, light and fragile as a leaf herself, float away, when her slight hold upon the world grew weaker.
When Sue awoke from an hour’s sleep the next morning she found Johnsy with dull, wide-open eyes staring at the drawn green shade. “It is the last one,” said Johnsy. “I thought it would surely fall during the night. I heard the wind. It will fall to-day, and I shall die at the same time.”
The ivy leaf was still there.
The next day the doctor said to Sue: “She’s out of danger. You won. Nutrition and care now - that’s all.”
“Didn’t you wonder why it never fluttered or moved when the wind blew?” asked Sue.“Ah, darling, it’s Behrman’s masterpiece - he painted it there the night that the last leaf fell.”
---------------------------------------
- That was part of O Henry’s classic short story, ‘the last leaf’, where Johnsy’s life depends on how many leaves fall down from the old ivy wine. The final leaf was painted and stuck on the tree to save her from dying.
Something about that story is not wholly fiction, I feel, and it is a story that often comes to my mind when I am with gardens, plants and leaves. Leaves, I am sure, have magic and power in them, if only we let ourselves experience them...
For many of us, today, Nature is something that is ‘out there’. It is something we see outside of the car window when we drive through the Western Ghats on our way to a hill station. Given the urban spaces that more than half the world lives in now, nature has become something we ‘give’ time to or ‘take relaxation’ from in a limited way rather than live as a part of her. The question is, how do we bring nature back into our lives again? The immediate response is- “Wait a minute, I live in a small two bedroom apartment, with one tiny balcony. Where is the space to bring in Nature?”
Welcome to My Sunny Balcony, a start up venture by four young green thumbed garden enthusiasts, who chucked their IT jobs two years ago to make your living space come alive with flora and fauna. Reena Chengappa, Athreya Chidambi, Sriram Aravamudan, and Shailesh Deshpande all knew they had a passion for thinking green, and wanted to convert it into action. “We were worried that the Bangalore’s old-world charm was fast vanishing because of the city’s uncontrollable expansion, and we wanted green thinking to become a part of the lifestyle” says Sriram Aravamudan.
Two years ago, the four friends first started developing gardens in their own balconies, and slowly branched out to homes of family members and friends. Everyone on the receiving end of their vegetative gifts were thrilled with the makeover of their balconies, and spread the word around. It was only a matter of time that what started off as a part time activity became a full time occupation for the founders of My Sunny Balcony.
Today, My Sunny Balcony designs and installs gardens in the spaces of a home, be it small balconies, huge terrace gardens or just empty corners inside your living space which need to come alive. We have transported the garden ‘up the elevator’ and given many homes the required makeover”, says a bubbly Reena constantly carrying a little sapling along with her during our conversation as if it was to accessorize her clothes.
“Let’s pause and think about this for a minute”, urges Shailesh Deshpande, “how many of us feel that plants, insects and animals are actually an intrusion into the four walls of our home?” When we do ponder, how many of us feel that we know it’s true? We seem to see, smell and feel more of cement and acrylic paint rather than know what it is to touch leaves, smell the fragrance of flowers and see the butterfly dancing over the little flower. We have forgotten what it means to be around plants, insects, and animals. Such a relationship or lack of it with nature only fosters alienation from the very things that make our life possible. Nature is more vital to our well-being than we realize. “Unlike a commercial product, gardens need to be understood, nurtured, and maintained with patience. Every garden needs care, irrespective of how small it is,” explains Sriram Aravamuda.
The folks at My Sunny Balcony have a very systematic way of conducting operations. First, they visit the client and assess the microclimatic conditions in their balcony. The clients’ needs are also assessed. Then they carefully research and select the plants that would be suitable for the client. After designing and installing the garden, they provide their clients with a plant care manual and specific directions on how to take care of the plants. They also ensure that the plants are as comfortable as possible in their new environments.
Richard Louv, American non-fiction author and journalist, created the term “nature-deficit disorder” to describe possible negative consequences to individual health and the social fabric as children move indoors and away from physical contact with the natural world – particularly unstructured, solitary experience.
In his book ‘Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder’ Louv states that this lack of “living with nature” leads to attention disorders, obesity, a dampening of creativity and depression. He gathered information on problems associated with a nature-deficient childhood. from practitioners of many disciplines to make his case, and is commonly credited with helping to inspire an international movement to reintroduce children to nature. Being with Nature - with all its complexities and range of content, textures and possibilities - is also said to foster children’s abilities for ‘field focus’ which helps in higher order thinking. Children deprived of Nature experiences may have ‘target focus’ with excessive technology and class room related activities, but insufficient ‘field focus’.
Plants not only sustain life, they are life. Not only do they represent natural vitality and abundance, just like humans, they live and die depending on how well they are cared for.
People who ‘buy gardens’ from My Sunny Balcony sometimes have problems - they often lack knowledge and experience with gardening. There is also a significant reluctance to handle soil. By putting our hands in the soil, getting on to our knees, and raising our very own gardens, we can learn to cherish our leafy brethren once again. And yes, our children will certainly benefit by connecting with Nature.
Elevate that spirit and let that green vine climb into your home...
To know more about My Sunny Balcony, visit: http://www.mysunnybalcony.com/
