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OFFTRACK:
BANGALORE, KARNATAKA
Healing
Grounds
A mother's tribute to her spastic daughter is a unique garden
By
Stephen David
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| SYLVAN
OBSESSION: Priya Mascarenhas (right) knows Champa finds peace in the
garden
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As
you approach Silverend-the 107-year-old British colonial bungalow on Cookson
Road in Bangalore-you are greeted at the entrance by an 8-ft-high cactus,
ginger lilies from Hawaii and heleconiums from Indonesia. Step inside
and you come across almost a thousand pots with plants from all over the
world, besides banana, mango, custard apple and other fruit-bearing trees.
There's also a waterfall, a fountain, even a tiny bridge-it's almost as
if you've stepped into the Garden of Eden.
It may not
be the biblical retreat but it certainly is a nursery of love. For the
prize-winning garden was inspired by love. It is a tale that began 27
years ago when Champa was born to Priya and Mohan Mascarenhas. A spastic
child was a challenge Priya thought she would not be able to take on.
But advice from a spiritual guru spurred her on. Then the love and labour
that went into rearing her daughter found another outlet: a garden for
the child.
To Champa,
the garden is a loved sanctuary where she has discovered the curative
power of plants and flowers. As a child Champa spent a lot of time in
the garden, growing with it. Today, she knows all about cacti, the varied
pots and plants and the waterfall, but is probably unaware that she has
been the source of inspiration for it all. "She would just come by
and help me as I prepared the manure or cropped leaves," says 55-year-old
Priya, who spends two hours with Champa in the garden every day.
"When
we moved to Silverend, which was my in-laws' home, there were just a few
pots here and there. There was no garden," reveals Priya, of the
time when they moved from Calcutta to Bangalore. It took Priya, then the
marketing director with the Spencer International Hotels, some months
to get used to the new home and a lifetime to create the garden. Married
to Mohan, a professional engineer running an agency that represents several
European engineering giants, Priya gets to travel all over the world frequently
with her husband. Which is why she has a wide assortment of plants from
around the globe.
The labour
has not gone unnoticed. The garden has won several awards, among them
the Best Maintained Building and Garden Award (for homes) from the Bangalore
Urban Arts Commission (buac). Says buac Chairman M.A. Partha Sarathy:
"Priya has given a lot of attention to trees, shrubs and flowers
and is totally involved in the spread of garden culture in the city. We
hope the award will reinvigorate the essence of aesthetics and environmental
care in the city." Recently, Priya received the buac's Dawn of the
Millennium Award and on Republic Day was given the Mysore Horticulture
Society's Outstanding Garden award by Chief Minister S.M. Krishna.
Some of
Priya's plants are now part of the garden at Raj Bhavan, home to Governor
V.S. Ramadevi, who is herself a green thumb. Her prowess with plants has
won her admiration. Says C. Gurumurthy of the Mysore Horticultural Society:
"Priya spends a lot of time in her garden despite being a businesswoman
in her own right."
"Greenery
was my passion even as a child growing up in the lush green coffee estates,"
recalls Priya. Daughter of a rich coffee planter, she was born with the
proverbial silver spoon in her mouth. A degree in arts from Mangalore's
St Agnes College was followed by a specialised study of art at San Officio
School of Art in Rome, Italy (she speaks fluent Italian). "I was
blessed with good parents, good education and Christian values that have
carried me through life. Besides, a very caring and supporting husband
has helped me a great deal," says Priya, whose 32-year-old married
daughter Nisha Rebello has also acquired the gardening bug from her mother.
But it is
the younger daughter who has helped Priya "understand life better".
"She and I find peace, quiet and togetherness in the garden. I am
just a tool in God's hand and it's his creation that provides the best
environment for therapy and care." Only, sometimes the tool is as
important as the hand that creates beauty.
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