Do Plants have Consciousness?

In our childhood days the noni trees of our village played an important role in our game plan. If 'keeping houses' was the play of the day   variety of dishes with brick dust, sand  and raw nonis formed  colourful  dishes in coconut shells and the ripe black noni fruits ( which was the single edible thing of the feast while other dishes were just pretends) became the celebrated dessert for the guests who visit the house.

This 'noni juice' of today, the unknown tonic of those days indeed should have boosted our immune system!!

With hefty sticks from coconut broom we had hammer throw with raw nonis serving as the hammer weight. Being a climbable tree it acted as the king's seat if drama was the amusement for the day! When we play in the moon light  which invariably progressed late into the night the noni flowers too participated in our game providing the heady fragrance  to make it an enchanting experience!

Being the only active members of the family, the visits to my village now is a rarity and coincides with certain feasts and rituals handed down through the generations. Today the almost hostile attitude to trees by residents members of the family in the village is very painful. When I tried my best to tell them about retaining and growing more the local trees  they listened out of respect and never ever did it go beyond that limit!

" If only I had more open space in my house in the city." My heart  ached.

One day as I was watering my little garden I was surprised to see  two little  plants with long tender leaves. On closer examination I was astonished to find out that they were noni plants!  " How is it possible?!"  I wondered . I have never seen a noni tree in my vicinity and beyond!  Rain tree, flame of the forest, neem tree, punga tree almond tree and konnai tree  are the commonly seen trees. I had seen some noni trees in the bushy areas at the back of Integral Coach Factory at Perambur when we go to visit my sister. But how could it  propagate  travelling such a distance and that too inside my tiny garden?!!

In my calls I made that day to express my wonderment, my little saplings became the centre of jubilation.

"You must be having a telepathic communication with your village." someone said

"You must have been strongly wishing for the noni tree to come to your garden."

The responses were varied but I enjoyed them all!

It was 9th of October which is my birthday, after my yoga in the terrace  as is my routine to  come down  to look around my garden, a chill ran down my spine. I  trembled I shuddered. I was witnessing a miracle before my eyes! My three feet noni plant welcomed me and wished me a very happy birthday with it's first fragrant blossom!!

To those who called me to wish on my birthday  my talk  literally  bragged about the miracle that had happened on the day!

" My love for trees should reach the sky high." was my prayer for the day!