It was The Play Dough Story on Giovanni's blog that made me write this post. Something in Megan's (Giovanni's niece) story made me charge down the memory lane to the time when I taught a class. The classroom was my balcony and the students were, well, plants.
Strange as it may seem, I didn't find too many human options that would fit the age and package. The brother was too busy with He-Man and his cronies while I didn't take to Barbie too well because I couldn't make her stand on her feet with or without shoes.
When you are four, all you want to do is look down upon someone and prove that you are a much superior being. Since I had no human companions of my age, the plants in the balcony made for good subjects.
I'd assigned them their characters. The rose was the class monitor. She was strong, mentor-like and was very, very attractive. The ferns were group of friends who would always come to school together, sit together, eat together, play together and probably would have stayed together if they didn't have to go back home. They didn't like the money plant much for it didn't look like the rest and would stay on its own. The talkative ferns feared the moneyplant would evesdrop on them and tell the teacher (that's me) about their secrets. The moneyplant, however, was too shy to mingle with the rest. Tulsi behaved like she knew when the world would come to an end and would threaten everyone with her doomsday theory when they all would finish and only she would survive. Hibiscus was the opposite. She'd break into peals of laughter at the drop of a hat. She didn't even need a reason to laugh. It was as if she was born to laugh.
Every morning, I would play out the classroom scene. I'd make Hibiscus laugh and Rose shout, "Quiet!" I would punish the talkative ferns for not doing their homework and would award Moneyplant a star for getting her math sums right.
The play-acting had stopped once I managed to secure friends at school and got busy with the homework. Over the years, I learned to look at the plants in the balcony as... plants. I would dissect the hibiscus flower to expose the pistil and I would study the spores on the underside of fern leaves.
Some plants withered, others multiplied (the ferns especially), new ones replaced the old but their characters of my green classroom are still alive in memory.
Strange as it may seem, I didn't find too many human options that would fit the age and package. The brother was too busy with He-Man and his cronies while I didn't take to Barbie too well because I couldn't make her stand on her feet with or without shoes.
When you are four, all you want to do is look down upon someone and prove that you are a much superior being. Since I had no human companions of my age, the plants in the balcony made for good subjects.
I'd assigned them their characters. The rose was the class monitor. She was strong, mentor-like and was very, very attractive. The ferns were group of friends who would always come to school together, sit together, eat together, play together and probably would have stayed together if they didn't have to go back home. They didn't like the money plant much for it didn't look like the rest and would stay on its own. The talkative ferns feared the moneyplant would evesdrop on them and tell the teacher (that's me) about their secrets. The moneyplant, however, was too shy to mingle with the rest. Tulsi behaved like she knew when the world would come to an end and would threaten everyone with her doomsday theory when they all would finish and only she would survive. Hibiscus was the opposite. She'd break into peals of laughter at the drop of a hat. She didn't even need a reason to laugh. It was as if she was born to laugh.
Every morning, I would play out the classroom scene. I'd make Hibiscus laugh and Rose shout, "Quiet!" I would punish the talkative ferns for not doing their homework and would award Moneyplant a star for getting her math sums right.The play-acting had stopped once I managed to secure friends at school and got busy with the homework. Over the years, I learned to look at the plants in the balcony as... plants. I would dissect the hibiscus flower to expose the pistil and I would study the spores on the underside of fern leaves.
Some plants withered, others multiplied (the ferns especially), new ones replaced the old but their characters of my green classroom are still alive in memory.
5 comments:
Insightful... nostalgic... creative...
was there any thought behind the appearance of the plants and the "personalities" you assigned ? having said that, ahhh, the childhood days... :-)
probably... i guess how they looked determined their respective behaviours
ahhh the days of childhood!!
:)
very well written :) and yes, i think i too had several imaginery pals. i think i still have several in my own mind who wake up according to the demands of the occasion.
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