A Gardener’s Canvas WORDS & IMAGES BY Dalipinder Sandhu
The sun of spring gleams on a fine Saturday morning. An old man dressed in humble clothing cycles down the driveway. He dismounts from his black bicycle with a frayed seat-cover. He proceeds towards a pit that he dug up a couple of weeks ago. Extending his hand, he checks whether the soil is ready for plantation. An expression of delight takes over his face. From his bicycle’s rusty carrier, he picks up a young Gulmohar (Royal Poinciana) and sets it in the soil. As he waters the plant, droplets coruscate from the leaves. This 57-year-old man can now claim with pride that he’s planted over 100 trees in the city of Chandigarh, India. Bidhi Singh Chaudhary, born in the Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh, India, recalls when he planted his first tree as a pre-teen in Chandigarh. Today, he has lost count of how many plants, shrubs, seasonal flowers, crops, and vines he has sown. He remains confident, though, that the number of trees he’s planted are in the three-digits. It’s especially significant in today’s eco-conscious age. Here is a man who has been supporting the ecofriendly movement for years, without the pomp of media coverage. His story becomes even more
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interesting when one realises that Chandigarh is a city. A modern planned city in fact, designed by Le Corbusier. Planting trees in a forest or a village is relatively straightforward. When it comes to a planned urban city that serves as the capital of two states, however, it is an entirely different scenario. Bidhi claims, correctly, that all one can see in Chandigarh is green. All concrete and brick buildings are shrouded by trees. He has contributed to this skyline by planting his favourite trees like Mango, Neem (Azadirachta Indica), and Gulmohar (Royal Poinciana) all around the city. It’s said, ‘where there’s a will, there’s a way.’ As Bidhi walks into the garden to weed the grass surrounding a nearby mango tree, he recalls a memory exemplifying the saying. After the turn of the millennium, on a hot summer afternoon, an officer was chewing a mango while attempting to beat the heat. After he was finished, he threw away the seed which became stuck in a water pipe. Coming across it later that day, Bidhi, out of a sense of public duty, removed the seed. Instead of throwing the seed away, he planted it. Today, it is a full-grown healthy tree. This is in part due to the
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