She could have kept her plants on the terrace but that would mean sending them too far away! So Punam Chirimar started keeping potted plants in the balcony adjoining her bedroom and now she can slip in and out of it easily throughout the day. Be it Spider Plants or Lilies, they can all command her love and attention round the clock.
The balcony is my favourite place at home. Since it’s adjoining my bedroom, it’s the first place I visit in the morning — sipping tea on my swing there, enjoying the breeze and watching my plants. We have a joint family and my relatives come over to join me for an evening cuppa too. If I ever feel upset I go there and receive the best natural therapy possible.
I grow different plants based on the season. There are some varieties that grow the whole year like Spider Plants, Coleus, Difernbachia, summer specials like Sunflowers, Hibiscus, Bougainvillaea and Togor. After the Pujas, I have got busy preparing winter specials like Dahlias, Petunias and Marigold.
I grow vegetables too like Lady’s Finger, Bitter Gourd, Mint and Curry Leaves. It makes a great difference to Italian cooking when I add home-grown Lemon Grass and Basil too.
Every plant is dear to me. At present, a Peace Lily is not doing too well but I am pouring my heart into keeping it alive. It’s heart-breaking to see a plant die. It happened to a Rose plant once and I was inconsolable. I feel low even when seasonal plants bow out every year.
I love sculpting and painting, and I have painted old bottles and food containers with emojis and turned them into flower pots. I used to sculpt too and in my CF Block home — where I lived before marriage — had created a clay bonsai based on a beautiful Pomegranate tree that I had planted there. It’s a different matter that the tree started flowering long after I got married and moved to GC Block!
During the pandemic, my family got Covid twice and having realised how important oxygen is to us, I started propagating plants that produce oxygen. From a single Snake Plant, I now have about 10, kept all over the house. I’ve also propagated Coleus, Spider Plant and Portulaca.
(As told to Brinda Sarkar)
