Flowers of Ooty – Part 4 – The Finale

Part IV – A garden to decorate

He was looking at the flowers and they were both sitting on a hillock in the Botanical garden in Ooty. They were tired after touring the garden. They had seen the Lower Garden, the New Garden and most importantly the Italian Garden. It was a special garden because they had just found out that the Italian Garden was first laid by the Italian Prisoners of War from World War I who were shifted to Ooty. The Italian Garden has many exotic species of flowers and even trees. The lillies, the asters, the impatiens, the cypresses , the pine trees and including the oriental white eyes which flutter about them like as if on a jolly field day. The girl loved it all and the asters were her favorite. 

The father noticed a bee buzzing back and forth in front of a lavender aster, as if signaling other bees that it had found a good motherlode here. Very soon, three other bees joined the lone bee and together they sucked the aster dry of its sugary nectar. It had been a good day. A genuinely happy and a carefree day. They had gone on the popular Ooty Toy Train, they had eaten the popular Ooty Homemade Chocolates and they had toured all the popular flower gardens extensively. All that was left now was to have a conversation with his daughter; A heartfelt conversation. 

Broad strokes. Ask the big questions, he thought. 

‘Why did you like the flower garden, Captain?’ 

Almost instantly the little girl replied, 

‘Because it represents what we can do with our life.’ 

The father was taken aback. 

‘What do you mean?’ He quizzed her, puzzled. 

‘After going around the garden today, I understood that we are each given a garden in life. We can do with it, what we wish. We can nurture and grow our own asters, our own roses and our own sunflowers. You can also choose to grow nothing at all. You can choose to even destroy the garden. But whatever the case, the garden is ours to decorate.’ 

Like napalm dropping on Vietnam, her words bombed his heart. He was immediately taken hold of by his own thoughts. She was right. The little girl was right! He reminisced and found no bright flowers in his garden. But he thought harder still and convinced himself that he had done a few good things in life. He had helped people whenever he had had a chance to help. He had fallen in love with the right woman and he had been responsible in giving life to a precious little princess. Surely that must amount to something. Surely, he thought, that must stand for a lilly or a rose. 

Then, he began to think of her, his princess, the little girl. He felt light at heart and he felt a bit at ease. He said to himself, if there is a god who created a jewel such as his daughter, who seems so naturally prodigious, the same god will certainly be responsible in taking care of her till the very end, many years down the road. However, was God really that easy to understand? He questioned. Din’t he think of his wife the same way? And yet God had taken her so unceremoniously, during child birth. But, it is all in the mind, he consoled himself, just as the feeling of death is all in the mind. And that he would rather think of God with a bit of faith and hope than not. Obstinately, he decided that God would protect his kid after he was gone. But why did he think he was going away? Was he really? 

He wanted to tell her so many things but he couldn’t articulate all of it at once. So he asked,

‘What do you want to do in life?’ 

‘Locomotive driver’, she replied pat. 

‘Why?’ 

‘I want to do Chuku-Buku and I want to go zzzuuuiiii’, she replied with a hearty gung-ho. 

‘Alright, let us go to Sunset Point. Ticket uncle is getting his car here to take us! What say Captain?’ 

‘Yes Soldier! We march at once!’ 

The father hauled the sweet girl on his shoulders and began walking towards the rendezvous point with the Ticket Collector. Sitting on his shoulders, she felt she could do anything she wished in life. But hearing the frequent wrenching coughs reverberating below her, she understood that this elevated view wouldn’t stay long. Enjoy while it lasts, adapt when it is lost, she thought to herself.

The flowers of Ooty gleamed their spectral colors with nonchalance and the bees attacked the brightest first, the sun saw it all. The garden rejoiced that day, for a new flower had bloomed, and with it the promise of a better future, a stronger fight and a newer color. 

‘Daddy?’ 

‘Yes Captain’, her dad replied from under.

‘Will you tell me about the Doodhsagar incident?’ 

‘Yes. I will. But you have to promise to keep it between us. A secret between you and me. Promise?’ 

‘Promise’ 

‘Okay Captain, here goes…’ 

—The End—

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