alan.fly,
Maybe it is a dominant gene from dad passed on to us! ( Being the kind of naval officer he was, I do not think that dad had any recessive genes!!!)
While chatting with Lulu Rego at the first communion party of Hruday he mentioned that all of the Quadros family had green thumbs. He particularly mentioned Alan and orchids and how much he has been helped by Alan there… and he also mentioned Florence and Joan and how good they are with plants…
We got into this conversation when I mentioned the little garden in my counselling centre backyard.
This is the most recent arrival there from a plant gifted to me by Joan. There isn’t a forest of these blooms as might be induced by looking at the picture – just one of them.
My Photoshop skills have been exploited to allow for this multi-floral presentation…
Voila !!
You will notice the multiplying petals (?)… three… four…five. In my garden I can just about see the sixth one peeping out hopefully…
I remember dad almost every morning when I water the plants. The workers I have here have volunteered to do it for me but I insist that I do it myself. And I am happy doing it. Three buckets of water… that’s all it takes. I remember how dad used to so religiously pour measured quantities of water into those pots on the balcony of the Malad house. Many years before that it was the vast and expansive Lonavala garden that I did not like having to water (but I had to) every evening from January to June 1961. For a long time after Lonavala, though I loved plants and flowers and particularly the forests, I resisted anything that had to do with tending a garden.
But the gene has won out in the end and I have this little garden that I will indulge in for the rest of my life.
I know others of the family also have quite a thing about plants and Lulu is right about the green thumb (even green hands!) that is common to us.
Plants and people…. I think I have a green thumb with people too… and I am glad for all that I am able to do in the counselling work my life is so full of. This gene must have come from mum. She was always very good with people with her bright attitude, brilliantly efficient manner of running a home and her gracious manner of reaching out to others. That was before she fell ill. I remember her telling me many years ago on the balcony of our first floor flat in Dhanraj Mahal never to speak badly of others. I have slipped up on this many times but it might have been more often had it not been for her.
So, thanks to dad and mum in a way, I continue caring for plants and for people.