GREEN THUMBS

It was the coming of our great friends Bill Benac Jr and Tim Fews years ago which paved the way for establishing a beautiful and bountiful garden on our terrace in Madras, which produced unbelievable quantities of delectable vegetables all round the year. This small stretch of garden has produced bottle plant, brinjal, tomatoes, peas, various types of greens, radish and many other tasty vegetables, which all of our children have relished with gleeful enthusiasm. This wonderful experience of growing on the terrace at Pathway, Chennai, gave great ideas. Plants in hundreds of thousands were felt as a great need as we started populating the new agro farm for children at Agili. This large farm required huge quantities and high quality plants, with various foliage, shrubs of different sizes, shapes, colours and qualities. It was estimated that we needed atleast 20000 to 25000 plants to fill the large amount of planter boxes which were planned all along the interior roads of the farm. Chandra and I, along with Kamala Joseph (consultant in landscaping), started pondering over this issue as to how exactly we should go about it. Kamala, a great lover of plants, started reeling out names of various plants we would need to fill the entire selected landscape. Her first suggestion was that we create a large lawn. A team from our community, who cleared the weeds, and watered and fertilized the entire area, planted Korean grass. This team while doing the lawn work came up with all the wonderful suggestions that resulted in the landscape you see today.

One of the great needs we felt was to create a non-depletable source, a source of plants with never ending possibilities of supply, as we needed literally hundreds and thousands of plants. These plants were needed in a particular time frame; we had work to do as the D-day of inauguration was very much in sight. So after considerable discussions and thought, it was decided that we needed to utilize the talents of all our children, boys and girls of Pathway. Anthasayanam, our field supervisor, was urged to visit Koothavakkam and Chennai centres and was given the challenging task of guiding and assisting the boys and girls in their own endeavor of raising a beautiful nursery- a nursery of hundreds and thousands of plants which could supply an unending amount of plants to the farm. Many mother plants were picked up from various sources and transported to Koothvakkam and Chennai centres. Children with great enthusiasm were lined up and given simple tasks of propagation of twigs and plants from the mother plant into small plastic bags which were filled by them with sand, red earth and fertilizer in equal quantities. Considerable detail instructions were given, with practical demonstrations of each and every step with considerable repetitions. Vaidyanthan, Muthu, Suji, Priya, and others joined this great activity with boundless enthusiasm, each one of them making mighty contributions in filling each plastic packet with soil, fertilizer and sand, and each one of them waiting for positive acknowledgement, appreciation and admiration from Chandra regarding their handiwork. This went for a number of days.

After tens of days, all the vacant ground at Pathway was covered with plastic bags ready to receive plants and twigs for propagation. There were thousands of bags waiting to be filled with plants such as ficus, crotons, gulmohar, flowering plants, climbers etc. All the boys and girls formed a large army of dedicated workers who showed hilarious willingness to do their bit in this great exercise. Twigs of Bougainvillea, hibiscus and various plants were selected and each of the children started planting them in individual plastic bags, and two boys and girls took upon themselves to pour water, every day without forgetting. The boys and girls became familiar with a huge variety of small plants, sometimes even with some botanical names. They carried buckets and mugs adroitly and dexterously to water all these plants.

Each of the plants tended with such tender loving care showed great signs of new leaves and shoots at every possible node, all of them showing heartwarming promise and response as they received good watering, sunlight, etc. Surprisingly not a single plant wilted nor suffered, can you believe it. All of them, every one of them, started growing in God's good speed. Chandra remarked that all Pathway children had the "Green Thumb". Green Revolution, yes, but Green Thumb?

I was not able to understand the concept, as I was only familiar with the colour of my thumb as well as the usual colour of others' thumbs plus nail polish etc. I wanted to know what exactly "Green Thumb' meant. Chandra explained to me that only children who were gifted with green thumb could succeed in growing plants magically and miraculously, while others however much they tried will not be half as successful as these little ones who were endowed with this wonderful gift. I was thrilled to know that our children were so highly endowed, so vitally helpful at this juncture, as we needed good and healthy plants to fill the entire farm. and they would not have come here but for the love and enthusiasm of our children.

God Almighty first planted a garden, says our Kindergarten Teacher, Mr. Prabhu, when He started His Own Project. He also points out that gardening is the purest of human pleasures and the most creative. We too have begun with a garden. The kiss of the Sun for pardon, the song of the birds for the mirth, one cow close on the grassland for wholesome company, and one is nearer God's heart in a garden than anywhere else on earth. A school poem he remembered. And where else can you hope to find fairies? Come to Pathway.

And according to our Headmaster Mr. Hridyan

athan, Bertrand Russell said: " Every time I talk to a Philosopher I am quite convinced that happiness is not possible in life, but whenever I talk to a gardener I am won over to the contrary conviction. That is, happiness, hope, joy and all else that goes with it is absolutely possible. Yours for the asking. Talk to our little gardeners, and you will find the truth yourself."

The concept of our agro farm, where you discover that happiness IS possible in life, and you are in fact already happy as soon as you arrive, is a novel one, where agriculture, horticulture, floriculture, as well as general culture, would be utilized for the physical, mental and spiritual betterment of children. The whole work is highly environmental- friendly, the effect of plants, flowers and fauna on young minds, growing of various things in the farm such as rice, pea nuts, vegetables, fruits like: mangoes, guavas, lime, coconuts, etc, the concept of growing their own food, thus saving money and resources, and the caring, and the sharing of food with other needy children, that is, "Children for Children", that is children

Of Pathway donating the grains and vegetables grown to other poor and needy children.

-A Report from Prasad.