Garden on the Window Sill

Update as of 4 January 2010

It was not the food crisis, nor the copy-cat syndrome of a good natured bank that plants 10 saplings for every registration to their internet banking, but just a sense of wanting to bond with the green plant that not only looks pretty and flowers once a while, but also fruits for consumption. Like many Mumbaiites, I too live in an apartment with little garden space. So I convert my window sill into my little garden. I used to be “prolific” in my younger days when I had at least a dozen pots of different sizes with myriad plants growing in them; spider plants, money plants, “Chinese bamboo plants”, fan palms. These dwindled with each passing monsoon, as the salty south westerlies literally blew away the leaves and reduced the plants to mere twigs in a mud pot. With at least half a year left for the next salty south westerlies, I thought it the ideal time to plant a few saplings that would not only adorn my window, but also in due course grow more foliage, flower and also maybe fruit. I was in luck, as I got a few saplings of the tomato vine (I still don’t know which variety they belong to), which I have planted in pots. I look forward to nurturing these and adding to the green around my home.

This morning, the D Street Boyz awoke earlier than usual to go to work. They had to start a good 55 minutes earlier they used to, and by mid-afternoon, fatigue had set in. So although they were gung ho about the first day in 2010, they did not have enough energy to keep trading – actually recording lower volumes than usual on D Street. It was almost like they started off at 50, then doubled their stakes to 100 and then switched on their cruise control button, and stayed at 100 or thereabouts for rest of the day. And nothing deterred them from this path – not even record auto sales by the leading Indian Carmaker; nor the plans of India’s largest petrochemical giant raising money to acquire an US based company. Even the sharply appreciating rupee could not move the SENSEX from its flat pitch – so it ended 94 points up at 17558.

I truly envy people who can afford a garden outside their homes, like my friend down under – he used to live in New Zealand and would grow lots of veggies and also seek my inputs on growing coriander and fenugreek in biting cold winters. These days he lives in sunnier coastal Western Australia and is busy keeping his swimming pool in ship shape. ‘Tis summer there now!

Cheers……