Green grass for homes!

Samadhi and I had a disagreement on an issue which was unimportant to us personally, but became important and controversial as the argument progressed. Why I am saying that is because few other colleagues too joined chipping in with their views and my gosh, the debate reached its climax with us both exceeding the accepted decibels in a news room. So, we will share it with you all this week in the memory lane, the bickering over somebody else's garden!

Believe it or not it 'was' all about another person's garden. I was on my way to another interview and Anuki was supposed to accompany me since it was originally meant to be a combined effort to write the story.

But she had to pull out at the last moment due to unavoidable circumstances. And as always I am poor at finding my way, I invariably had to call the interviewee several times before I found my bearings. As I was about to enter this lady's front yard, she warned me about a rather unkept and wild garden.

My argument was that why would people be selfish. I mean it is always nice to have a 'green' surrounding, but one should also take care to, have a well-manicured garden so as not to put other peoples lives in danger.

Just because one likes greenery it doesn't mean they should have an overgrown garden. I do agree that it is anyone's right to maintain their garden according to their whims and fancies. But it would not be nice, just because he or she is the owner of the particular land, to keep a wild growth.

I was there at a famous lady's house once and the garden was full of greenery. It wasn't a modern garden and I felt as if I was in the centre of a village. It was indeed surprising to see a garden of its nature in the city of Colombo. But then what I realised was that the garden was very well maintained.

All I was trying to make my friend understand, was that first impressions can pass on wrong messages and well, wasn't that the reason why Samadhi shared her experience of the dishevelled garden, with me in the first place?

Well that's true enough I guess. What Anuki says has a point. But the thing is, if the particular person does not care a damn about anyone's 'impressions' what's the big deal? If she does not care about what others think who are we to accuse that she is wrong and that she SHOULD care about others opinion. And about the issue of visitors. If one visits her place, then they would visit at their own risk.

They would see the over grown garden and may not or perhaps even should avoid a second visit if they feel queasy about it. I admitted to Anuki - quite aloud of course since we were in the middle of a heated debate - that it was morally wrong but no one should not and cannot force her to clean up her act or her garden for that matter!

By this time we were talking so loud that we were attracting the attention of some senior colleagues. One senior was, in fact inquired to find out what was all about. We explained our dilemma. She claimed that it was not illegal but indeed it was morally wrong.

However she explained that if it posed a health hazard, like creating breeding grounds for dengue virus carrying mosquitoes, it could be done by legal means.

Okay, folks, trust this week's Memory Lane was full of insight that would have racked our readers' brains a little on how others behaviour can affect us all.