TRANQUILITY

The fragrance of the neem tree, Bright, beautiful Azure cloud, the melodic chirping of birds, an old neighbor woman was sweeping and swapping the broom on her right and left hand like a perfect choreograph, while few other neighbors were busy with their final touch of the Rangolis. It’s a girl thing when the ladies make a slight adjustment of their dropping forehead hair while working on the Rangoli. Perfect early morning backdrop to glance from the terrace with a mild westerly breeze. I quickly checked the weather app on my phone, mostly clear Madurai recorded 28 deg centigrade, high of 39, humidity around 75%, While the time in my phone displayed 6:56 AM, May 2nd, 2011, I could hear the rhyming sound of "பதனீ(Padhanee) பதனீ(Padhanee) ” yes that is how the middle-aged couple who drove the tricycle sold the Neera or the palm nectar which is a famous summer drink in South India. From my terrace, I waved at the couple to stop at my home. The couple had perfect “utopian Dravidians” looks with very earthy, rustic, and humble appearance. I took a big bowl from my kitchen and requested them to fill it. The couple with a smile offered me to drink on the Palm leaf. Instantly I accepted, they beautifully created a small container shape on the palm leaf and offered me the drink. The Neera on the palm leaf is a bliss. To keep our body, cool from the summer heat Neera had been a perfect choice. I requested the couple to stop at my home every day for the next week of my stay at Madurai. Finally, I checked how much do I need to pay? Wiping her sweat with her saree she replied with a smile 80 rupees. While paying I noticed the park gate opposite my home was just open.

 

I walked inside the park and surprised to see a variety of saplings planted all around the park. The park was a perfect football-sized rectangular area, at the corner of the park, a basketball-sized place had been allocated for a kids play area with few swings, seesaw, monkey bars, and slides. There was a rectangular walkway pavement barring the kids' play area. Few green painted steel benches to sit across the park. I sat on one of the benches which were under a famous century-old Neem & Gulmohar tree, most of the trees on the periphery of the park had been existing even before the park construction. As I sat in the park, my thoughts started to ponder on the teenage days. Yes, the very place where I sat was ground until the construction of this park. As a kid, I started improving my cricketing skills on the same ground. The long-on and the long off was perfect 50meters while the square and off was very short. Most of the time the neighborhood on the offside of the ground was very strict. Every time the ball was hit at their place it was too tedious to get it back, we had to plead for the ball even for 20-30mts before one mercy soul inside the house let go one kid to pick it real quick, because of this we avoided hitting on that particular direction and we tried to play little squarish or on the onside. When you scoop a ball for a 50m straight-six or when you run and take a brilliant catch at the long or long-off, a big cheer from the friends and sometimes from the neighborhood uncles made us very proud. During adolescence, if a girl in the neighborhood sits on the balcony gazing at the ground we assumed that she had an eye on our game and you could see guys on the field exhibiting their cricketing skills beyond their abilities, most of them get pumped up with a great degree of adrenaline rush within them. We could realize some unnecessary dives on the field too ignoring the red sandy soil. The bruises in the body never minded as the intention had been to create a good impression in front of the girl. While I had a smile thinking about my teenage memory. I had a pat on my shoulders from a gentleman. He was in his late 30’s and he was my neighbor who has been a Forest officer by profession.

 

He had moved to our locality a year before and he stayed just a few meters away from my home. I came to know from my cousin who was living next to my home that the forest officer had played an instrumental role in the transformation of ground to a park. Remembering that I congratulated him, and I introduced myself. I asked him how it all happened? He explained that in 2009, a Government Order (GO) had been passed to convert this ground into a park. No actions were taken from the corporation and the ground was lying in poor condition without maintenance. Once he purchased the home in our locality, he came to know about this, and he approached the decision-making officers in the corporation and expedited the construction of the park. He got a grant of 5 lakh rupees for the corporation to construct proper fencing, few loads of red soil, kids play area equipment, gate, few lights, and bore with a tank inside the park. All this construction happened in 6-8 months timeline. Moreover, since he was a forest officer by profession, he had considered the nature of the soil and brought different saplings and planted inside the park. Some of the key plants were Teak, Banyan, Peepal, Gulmohar, and few more medicinal plants. He bought the drip irrigation pipes and laid across the park and watered it with the help of the newly made borewell. By seeing his initiatives many people in the locality started appreciating his efforts, people in the locality wanted to support his dream of making this park into a mini forest and started volunteering to safekeep the park’s maintenance. The neat housekeeping of the park not only brought people within the locality but also from various neighborhoods. Evening in the park side started buzzing, this even attracted a few of the small-time vendors to open the mobile eateries near to the park. Also, this took the attention of the corporation people and they volunteered to increase the number of lighting from whatever number they had installed previously. I was awestruck by his humungous efforts and thanked him for his contribution to society. He took the compliments very casually and invited me for the detour of all the saplings within the premises. He took me in front of each sapling and told me about the significance of it. While explaining I could feel the enthusiasm and his long-term vision. Each grass to any greenery inside that park was the effort of this gentleman. He took care of it like his own baby for the first three years. He had mentioned that all these saplings require attention for the first 3 years later the growth happens itself. I took the picture of the park from various directions and shared a copy to him. All I could do after the detour was a big salute and hug to this gentleman.

 

The entrance of my house was in the east direction and every morning the sun rays used to fall directly in our living room and kitchen, we could see the opposite side (almost 100 meters) of the road from my entrance of the home. As time passed, I could see the transformation in the saplings of the park, few of the saplings couldn’t grow and many of the key plants started growing. Today in 2020 when I travel to my home and from the same entrance, I couldn’t see the opposite side it has now become a mini jungle. We had reconstructed our house to a three-floor building but the trees in the park have almost reached that height. Nowadays we don’t see the penetration of the sun rays inside our room. All we hear from our new balcony is the chirping of birds, cuckoo, parrots and it has also become a housing to a very big group of birds, squirrels, insects, reptiles, and various other species. The oxygen level has improved in our locality and what we inhale from my balcony is more of fresh air. In this ten year, the forest officer has influenced many of the neighbors in our locality to plant a tree in Infront of their home and many of them had grown it. Last summer when I visited my home, I had an opportunity to meet the forest officer. He was the same humble person not carrying the pride of creating such an impact to the society. I recollected the conversation that we had before 10 years, but he was not too keen on that, he told me that the only worry now he had was the theft of car tires because of these dense trees. Now is the time to invest in the CCTV cameras as he sat on his office jeep to his duty. People like him are a great inspiration to many of us, he is a real-life hero roaming as a common man. He carries “What’s next? attitude and works on the solution of the present problem within the locality. If we can't make an impact like the Forest officer at least we have to be associated with a good cause like this sustainable development.

With love

Keestu