The Bohemian Gardener

By Maitreyee B Chowdhury

I call him the ‘bohemian gardener’. This man is often seen in the vicinity that I stay in. On any given day, he can be seen cleaning the sidewalks, trimming some one’s fence and replanting branches of Bouganvilla that have been thrown away, in the by lanes of the area.

Curious, I approached him one day while he was trimming the fence of a house with overgrown plants. I asked him if he was being paid for what he was doing. In a brusque manner, he told me that it angered him when people didn’t maintain plants and could not look after even tiny gardens or keep the sidewalk near their houses clean. He had therefore taken on the responsibility of doing it for them!

Incidentally I happened to be on the look out for a gardener, who would give me a hand in my small garden. A lot of young fellas had popped in quoting fancy prices..It struck me that I should ask this gent if he would be interested. To my gentle query, he said he would inspect the garden and see if I

had an interest in gardening!

From the moment he entered my house, he ordered me around, scolded me about how I hadn’t pruned the plants right & ordered some tea for himself to be made by me, while he worked around the garden making it neat and tidy. After watching him work I knew he knew his job well & offered him a monthly retainer. To my surprise he refused. He said he didn’t like being bound in one job, be cause it would take away his liberty of doing the things he wanted, like pruning the side walks, making public parks neat, etc. In his brusque manner he tells me ‘I’ll come when I want & leave when I want, but rest assured you garden will always be neat’.

Somewhere it struck a chord, that’s how yours truly has always worked, bound by none, needless to say we make a great team, bound by silences and the passion for gardening, I have helped him beautify many a sidewalk too in and around my area. Today when I clicked him, to my surprise, the nonchalant man I knew suddenly stood at attention and smiled at his own picture that I showed him. In the oldest of old rituals, he kissed my hands in gratitude.

Why don’t they make people like that any more, I wonder!

Maitreyee B Chowdhury is a Bangalore based creative writer and poet. Apart from being a professional web content writer, she is the author of two books on poetry and regional films in India. People watching is a compulsion for her. She is fascinated by ‘ The man on the road’.

The idea of writing about ‘The man on the road’ came naturally, says Maitreyee. “Some of the most compelling, beautiful and bizarre stories unfold on the road. The everyday man’s struggle for existence, his tenacity and the beauty of the stark is what is absolutely fascinating”, she says.

Maitreyee writes for us every month her column, The Man on the Road. She can be contacted at maitreyee@thesipoflife.com