15 years ago, driven by visions of relaxed weekends and family fun we bought a 'farm' It's not a real farm - it's not big enough to start with but it was the ultimate Delhi status symbol... Oh, you know, we went up for a picnic to our farm near Gurgaon for the weekend! I sincerely hope that that was not what motivated us then! Now, many years later it is still there. There were only one or two straggly trees when we bought the land. We planted almost a 100 - flowering trees that grow in Haryana's sandy soil. Jacaranda, Gulmohar and Amaltas. Fruit trees too. Niboo and Shahtoot and Jamun. There was Bogenvellia on the boundary and a little green lawn with Dahlias and Seasonal Flowers all around.
We were not in Delhi for years. The farm soldiered on and we buried our beloved dog there when he died a painful death. There were some crops and caretakers. They came and went and we saw the place once a year if at all. But it is still there. And it is very peaceful. Under the fierce glare of the June sun the trees, grown up now, provide a dappled shade and the cooing of the birds is the only counterpoint to the water gushing from the tubewell.
And so a part of something gets kindled. What is is that binds you to things like land? Memories, I guess or is there something else? Some need to belong and for things to belong to you. Not for now but for a long time. Maybe forever, but that's a very long word.
And so, the grass will be replanted and the flowers will bloom again. Who will see them? Perhaps no one but the land will bloom again
Debu Bhatnagar - Observer, Analyst, Sceptic, Alternate View.
