Environment Day: Rabindranath Tagore's flowers and My Mom's adoration for Tulsi

To begin with, on a personal note, my mother – who expired last November – was a dedicated devotee of Tulsi plant. Obviously, like every caring Hindu mother, Maa used to talk about Tulsi leaves used for treatment of cold and cough. Among other benefits – Tulsi remains an excellent skin cleanser. Juice of Tulsi leaves is used also in treating ringworm and skin disorders. 

Nature, Grand Mom and Grand Daughter

Tulsi is also useful to heal and protect wounds from infections. Long Live Mother Nature!

The ‘World Environment Day’ comes and goes every year. June 5 in the calendar year is usual and the world gets back to its normal course once the day is gone.

In circa 2020 however, the importance of nature and environment has become all the more significance due to Coronavirus crisis. There is raging debate about linking the new but unseen virus to animals and birds. There was also a greater push for a ban on China’s live animal markets, which even otherwise poses a high risk for contagion.

There has been talk about bats’ involvement in the entire episode and it has been suggested that exotic pet rodents were seen as the possible source of an outbreak of monkeypox in 2003. Pigs initiated the 2009 swine flu pandemic. Yet again, this year the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Agriculture confirmed that two pet cats in New York had tested positive for SARS-CoV-2.

But what nature as a whole ? No, I am not drawing you into further guessing about the origin of Covid-19.

Let us therefore take the debate to another plane – the plants, trees, fruits and flowers.

Obviously, plants and flowers are the most beautiful and living manifestations of nature. True, poets like Rabindranath Tagaore have used flowers and plantations in literary creations.

Traditionally, trees and plants are “sacred” to the Hindus and also Buddhists. Palm leaves were used for sacred scriptures. In Kolkata, notwithstanding decades of Marxism which promoted ‘irreligious cult’ and now Mamata Banerjee’s turning ‘apaa culture', people believe the emblem of Lord Shiva in famous Tarekeshwar temple is made up of stumps of Palmyra Palm.

For ages, this has been regarded as one of the most useful trees. Since ancient times, Palm stems and roots have been useful commercially. Stems have been used for roofing and leaves for thatching. 

In fact, Tagore had penned a lovely song ‘Mono mor day tari matta prabahe...Tal Tamala aranye’ – this could mean Frenzied movement of the cloud is taking away my mind to the grooves of Palmyra Palm – Tala.

No Bengali of my generation could have grown without listening and humming a popular number – “Megher Koley Rod heshechey (The Sun has risen smiling on the lap of clouds)". In this number also a clear reference is made to Tala tree – “Tal dighitey...”

(Near that pond stood a palm tree).

In the book ‘Plants and Flowers in Tagore’s Songs’, author Debi Prasad Mukhopadhyay rightly says – the Nobel laureate had referred to “innumerable flowers – foreign and domestic – in his songs”.

Mukhopadhyay further writes – “The poet (Tagore) was certainly not content with tree plantation only. Throughout his extremely busy life he kept a careful watch that the plants were being attended to and care was being taken for their maintenance”.

This is relevant in today’s contest all the more as mother Nature has reasons to feel neglected and exploited by human beings and hence her fury also comes in from time to time in one form or the other.

Tagore’s love for plants and mother nature was exemplified in a letter written by him to Sacchidananda Roy, a devoted worker at Santiniketan. “Pay particular attention to the garden. Some two to three Chameli (Spanish Jasmine) bushes have to be made close to each other and make its name worthwhile”.

One can write more on these lines. But the debate today should be on what have we made out of mother Nature. Corona thus remains an episode to teach us all to take whatever corrective steps we ought to take in more ways than one.

Look what has been done by the greed guided by real estate business. In Noida and Greater Noida areas – those who have shifted to new built towering buildings are struggling for ‘breathing’ fresh air. And thus some people are busy minting money by selling indoor plants those will purify the air.

Well, it goes without saying that breathing clean air have always contributed to better health.

Now, coming back to Covid-19 debate, there is no gainsay to state that a major consequence of coronavirus-induced Lockdowns around the world has been lower air pollution levels. 

In India, we are witnessing the same. Yamuna river has become clean ! 

Is New Delhi and the national capital region still one of the most polluted regions on the globe?

In April, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) reported 46 per cent reduction in PM2.5 levels and 50 per cent depletion in PM10 concentrations in Delhi.  

Keeping up the spirit of ‘Be Indian, think Indian’, let me make it clear here that the Tulsi – a sacred plant in every Hindu houses – remains an excellent air-purifying plant – indoor and also in courtyard.  

ends