Good hedges make good houses

RS Dalal

DURING a visit to my village, where, after retirement, I go often to work with rural folks, I saw a bunch of young boys hacking away at a bougainvillea hedge around the village park with a kainchi. They were struggling to chop off the branches. 'Why are you doing such a lousy job? Don't you know how to use the pruning shears? Let me show you how to trim a hedge,' I remonstrated.

To my own surprise, I worked the shears crisply, efficiently and effortlessly, leaving the teenagers with their mouths wide-opened. Over the next 15 minutes, I could give the wild bush some shape. ‘How do you cut it so fast and smooth, sir?’ they exclaimed. ‘I worked as a mali when I was your age,’ I shrugged and smiled.

When I was a child, in the late ’50s, my father had been allotted a newly constructed government house on the Mall Road in Ludhiana. It was a quantum leap in comfortable living compared to the private house where we lived earlier. It was a corner house with a boundary wall on three sides. ‘We need to plant a quick-growing hedge to prevent intrusions,’ my father suggested. My mother was the only one to oppose him, for she could foresee the tedious job of maintaining it. But she was overruled.

Being a botanist, he decided to plant pithecellobium dulce, popularly called jungle jalebi. In a few months, it was taller than the boundary wall. The question was: who would maintain the hedge at a particular height so that the house looked impressive both from the inside and to the passers-by?

We three brothers, two being elder to me, were assigned the task. We started off enthusiastically with a newly bought pair of secateurs, unmindful that the task would be back-breaking. Learning the technique of effortlessly moving the blades was like learning a form of art — a synchronisation of a host of muscles, right timing and the use of optimal force. Our hands got bruised with painful blisters. My mother was in tears seeing the blisters and would curse the day when my father decided to have the hedge. ‘Look at our neighbours; they are none the worse for not having a hedge,’ she would crib. Moreover, the fast-growing jungle jalebi required trimming and pruning at short intervals. Our hands got rough with permanent callosities, but there was no escaping it.

However, soon the house started looking aesthetically nice and impressive, with passers-by too looking over their shoulders in envy. If hedges/fences can make good neighbours, they also make good houses!