The jasmine seedlings

Published on Friday, 5 December 2014

In my childhood, we went to maternal grandpa's house once a year to spend our vacation after school final. Time would fly fast there. At the end of the vacation, my father came to bring us back home.

One day, I noticed two jasmine seedlings in my grandpa' house and developed a soft corner for them. They appeared to me as two newborn babies. Having seated by them, I would touch their delicate, glossy stems and small green leaves with my hand. I watered them three times a day and build a fence with jute sticks around them. One day, I told my mother that I wanted to take the jasmine seedlings home. At my words, my mother got irritated and said, " What is the use of the seedlings? There is no such room to implant them in our home. During harvesting in summer, we have to uproot them." I imagined my mother uprooting them and shuddered all over my body, "Please, mother, don't do it. I will implant them so near our room that they will make no trouble to harvesting. Then my mother agreed and asked me to get my maternal uncle's permission. I become happy, meet my uncle and expressed my interest in the seedlings. My uncle gave his consent in taking the seedlings and made me aware about harvesting in our home. I thanked him and promised to save them at any rate.

It had been dark when we arrived home. My mother forbade me to plant them now lest I could catch a cold. But I noticed they had become tired and weary due to the long journey. They needed implanting now. If not, they could die before the daybreak. Restoring them into life was more important to me than my getting sick. So, with the help of my two younger siblings, I dug two holes side by side, near my room, put some dried up cow-dung into the holes as fertilizer and implant them. I sighed in relief feeling I served my first duty to save their lives.

Next morning, we build two fences with bamboo sticks for two of them. Like the time at maternal grandpa's house, I watered them twice a day. Anyway, the seedlings grew up with time. Now it had many branches and green leaves. One day, I noticed buds appeared on the plants. I can't describe the feelings of the moment. At one stage, the buds bloomed into flowers. The air around the plants, as well as my heart was filled with the sweet smell of the flowers. One day at the beginning of the summer, coming back from school, I noticed the plants were no longer exist there. The whole courtyard was coated with a mixture of mud and cow-dung. I couldn't fill the void left by the non-being of the plants and the flowers for long.