Alvares, Rahul; Natural history -- India -- Anecdotes
The Green Heritage programme had several aspects: (i) the exhibition,
(ii) lectures and talks on different subjects and (iii) competitions of
different kinds-all related to the green world.
The main exhibition hall was very big and it was filled with all kinds
of plants, arranged in such a manner that people could move around
easily and view the plants without too much difficulty. Altogether
there must have been about two hundred pots. There were vegetable
plants such as chillies and brinjals. There were flowering plants,
cacti, creepers, ferns, bonsai of Banyan trees, peepal trees, etc.
There were also lime trees, orange trees and chickoo trees all growing
in pots.
On the stage in the hall, competition exhibits-vegetable-carving crafts
and flower-making crafts of students from different schools-were kept.
Outside the hall there were two corridors. In one corridor the
government nursery was stationed, where neem, mango, coconut, chickoo,
tamarind, cashew and some other kinds of trees were being sold. Along
the other corridor a variety of other items were kept on sale: a small
table held copies of the book, Total Gardening as well as the previous
two volumes released at the earlier exhibitions by the Green Heritage;
another table held beautiful coconut handicrafts for sale. There was an
elephant head, a table lamp, a skull, all made out of different parts
of a coconut. Next to this, The Other India Bookstore had set up a
stall with a large variety of environment titles. Further down was the
Garden Glory stall selling various types of garden implements such as
lawn movers, cutters, sprayers and other accessories. Apurbhai had a
variety of organic manures like leaf mould, Karanji and bone meal
besides ornamental plants, palms and creepers. There were pickles,
squashes and medicine for papaya plants also on sale.
At the far end of the corridor was the canteen. Here, whenever we were
thirsty or hungry, we went and had a cold drink or some snacks. I
didn't have to worry about my bill, because it was taken care of by the
Green Heritage group.
Next to the canteen, there was a small table, a blackboard, some chalk
and some benches. This was where the programme of lectures and talks
was held. Altogether there were four talks given during the Green
Heritage Programme: on vegetable carving, jams and squashes,
wine-making, and cacti.
I decided to attend the talk given on cacti by a person who grew cacti
in his flat. His talk was extremely interesting and full of practical
information and handy hints on how to grow cacti. Although I have not
tried my hand at growing cacti, yet I took down detailed notes which I
shared with my mother, who as I correctly thought was very happy to get
the information as it helped her in her little cacti rock garden. And
it certainly was a very educative talk for me.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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