Sho !

i have been away from Kerala for so long that I have forgotten the regional changes in Malayalam language. Sho ! is either Kottayam or Chengannur version, where you sit down somewhere with your chin resting on your palm and sigh deepily and say “sho”, not shoo, where you shoo away the birds, sho is a simple word that says a lot more than a single syllable sound!

It all started when I was in grade 6. I love plants and flowers and with my uncanny ability to kill them. Amma banished me from her garden. Amma used to have Cannas ( she even had double colour cannas), gerberas, wood rose,gladiom kliom kliom etc in her garden. I too wanted a garden, but growing flowering plants proved to be a big challenge, so I resorted to Cactus. I filled empty Nutrigen tins with sand/gravel and grew cactus that I had to beg and collect from  cousins neighbours etc. They actually survived ! ( eventually the tins rusted and I left home). It was during one of those begging trips to collect new cactus that I found the most amazing plant in my cousin’s garden. Fleshy leaves and absolute symmetry, a plant that actually looks like a flower also known as Hens and Chicks..I could almost see my dreams come true, a garden with flowers !.. My cousin being the ever generous one , gave me a microscopic sized baby plant and under my tender loving care, it eventually grew to the normal size. It was my pride and joy and it needed a prominent place. I kept it on top of the gate post. So, everyone who walked up and down the road would see my plant.

Idiot..I called myself that when I found an empty pot one evening after coming back from school. Someone kindly stole my plant.

The next time I saw hens and chicks was in Canada and I had a huge pot of hens and chicks and even  under a foot deep snow, it survived !

Coming to Australia was really an eye opener for me. I am on a mission to collect  ( and kill) succulents. I have so many different varieties in my garden.

Last Saturday, I couldn’t find a car park anywhere near the basket ball court and had to park in a residential area. After the game, as I walked back towards my car, I noticed an unusual variety of succulents growing in front of one of the houses.

If you have never had an out of body experience, read on..

My daughter had already reached the car and was looking at me annoyed, she was not too happy to walk all the way from the court, she was tired and was waiting for me to press the remote and open the car. I was still a bit away from the signal range. The normal Sarah, would just walk quickly towards her car and unlock it. but this particular one, looked left and right, quickly walked back to the house where she saw the succulent and pulled one out and then walked towards her car..

The look on my daughter’s face..it was exactly the same I had, each time my mother stole a plant. Sho !

ps. Not nutrigen, that was Yaya’s favourite drink . It was nutramul, cheaper version of  bournvita

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *