My Small Part of Nature

Having grown up in a beautiful hill station, Shillong, in India’s Northeastern corner I was always in the midst of nature. We lived in a small cottage which from one side looked as if it had just one floor but if you went behind there was another floor beneath it. That’s how it is mostly in the hill stations. We had a small garden out the front too with colorful flowers. I have spent countless evenings there, just admiring the shades. Needless to say there were hedges and trees all around. We didn't have wooden fences, the hedges did the job. And then every room had so many windows looking onto the green hills all around that it almost seemed like a fairy land. In our school too there was a huge garden with fruit trees and flowers. So up until I left Shillong for my studies nature or greenery was something that I took for granted. What I mean to say is that I never thought there could be a home without a garden or there could be a street without trees. How naïve of me, I know!

It was only when the friends I made outside Shillong talked animatedly about trips to hill stations or just their wish to spend a few days in the lap of nature that I realized how fortunate I was. But that’s not the point. What I also understood then is that in our country there is very little regards to preserving nature. And that’s why we need to go in search of it.

Why we are blind sighted to the alarm bells sounding in nature is the question. Now that could be due to population explosion or some other scientific or sociological fact, I don’t know. But what I do know is that it scares me sometimes, not always I’ll be honest for I don’t think about it as often as I should perhaps. It’s when I see documentaries in the Discovery Channel or when my sister shows me movies like The Day After Tomorrow or 2012 that I panic and start fretting about our mistakes when it comes to preserving nature.


What is even worrisome is that the various elements of nature are interrelated, trees, water and climate. And I don’t need to say how it has deteriorated. Maybe in our own small way we can do something. I live in an apartment so except two balconies I don’t have much space for a garden. But I still have some potted plants. I don’t know if it makes any difference but it gives me a certain satisfaction. I try to save as much water as I can too and also try to not use plastics wherever possible. How significant these are, I don’t know. But that’s my own way of preserving my small part of nature. But that’s not enough, not even by a quarter.

So for a change why don’t I stop blabbering and let you tell me what more can I do, what more we can do?