Ashish, Smita, Prajakta and I spent the last Saturday in literally back-breaking work....we cleared off half of the jackfruit-mango trees patch...of Ashok saplings ! The Ashok seeds, carried by wind, landed up in almost the entire garden, germinated and now we have thousands (no exaggeration, really) of Ashok saplings ! So we decided to water the ground and remove the saplings alongwith its roots and donate them all to the Pune Municipal Corporation - Udyan (garden) Department. They use them when they ahve tree plantation drives, to line different roads, in their public gardens. So, that is what we did on Saturday 20th and Sunday 21st.
Initially it seemed as if we would get it done quickly. But as we progressed, we realised that there are far too many saplings than we had imagined. Four of us worked for about two hours and could clear only half the patch ! Can you guess how many saplings we removed ? Approximately 300-350 !!!
As we began work, we did manage to kill some saplings. Initially Ashish kept insisting that this was unnecessarily time consuming. Methinks, he was secretly hoping to be able to use the machete ! But after some sharp 'Shut up's from us, he did just that and concentrated on removing the saplings with the roots intact. We have discovered a technique to do it just right...pour some water at the base of the plant, loosen the mud upto six inches with a small shovel, then stand with your legs on either side of the sapling, grab it with both hands, turn it round and round in circles and then gently and very very slowly pull it out without jerks and with minimum force and voilà !
We had two large garbage bags full of Ashok saplings. Then Prajakta and I took them to the PMC Garden department. Now that was an interesting experience :) The garden dept. is on the first floor in a small building in Sambhaji Udyan. There is a small verandah just outside the garden dept. So, we kept those bags in the verandah and walked in. I spoke to the receptionist. Here's how the conversation went:
Me: Hi. I have some Ashok saplings that I want to give to the garden dept. ...
R (interrupting me): WHAT ?
Me: I have some Ashok saplings that I want to give to the garden dept. ...
R (interrupting me): Give ?
Me (slowly beginning to lose patience): Yes, I have some Ashok saplings that I want to give to the Garden dept. What is the procedure ?
R (looking at me, thinking, what a strange request!): Ask ABC saheb in that cabin over there !
So off I marched to the said saheb. I shall not report that conversation. Suffice it to say that it was nearly a replica of the conversation with Receptionist lady, except at the end, saheb summoned a gardener to whom we handed over the saplings, with a promise to deliver more periodically, to which, thankfully, we got an enthusiastic response.
On Sunday, it was just Amruta, me and Srujan, a little friend of mine (all of 12 years...a very interesting character...more about him some other time) in Aanandi, doing, what else, but removing Ashok saplings. Srujan, the petit, was asked to water the plants (non-strenuous work) and Amruta and I removed saplings. I have now developed a mastery over removing saplings...so much so that I removed a mini-tree with its root intact...that root which had gone nearly 3-4 feet deep :) That day we managed to almost clear up the entire patch, save for a couple of saplings here and there. These amounted to about 150, which were duly handed over to Mr. PMC Gardener the next morning.
Tomorrow we shall remove the remaining patches and perhaps dig up other patches to air them. There is one thing that is bothering us, though. We are simply not getting labourers to dig up and clear away the huge patch full of rubble adjoining the concrete wall. They agree to come when we meet them and negotiate. But come d-day and they simply don't turn up. When we call them, they either say they are on the way and never turn up or don't receive our calls at all. Some that we have located are unavailable since they have gone to their native place for some big festival ! That is the one big thing that, when finished, will change the look of the garden to a very large extent. Tomorrow Pradeep is going to try and get one labour contractor to come.
Keeping my fingers crossed !
Oh, by the way, we got our first reader outside of people who work in Aanandi. I read her blog regularly here and love the way she writes. Thanks Seema for the words of encouragement :) Should you happen to visit Pune anytime, you are most welcome to visit Aanandi :)
Au revoir mes chères !
1 comment:
Looks like back breaking work, but you are always so cheerful and that makes it enjoyable :)
Speaking about labourers, have you tried catching them early in the morning at ralways stations or bus stands or any junctions? I've heard that daily wage earners gather at important junctions early in the mornings where they are picked up by labour contractors or builders. Maybe you have already tried it, but just in case.
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