The Botany Lesson

Here is Suchandra giving some botany lessons to little Anok! This picture was taken about a decade back. Way back then we still had plans of shifting base to Kamarpara, or atleast Shantiniketan, do some rural development work, start an organic farm, paint, build a crafts village, teach..in other words, add a little value to our otherwise miserable and meaningless life. But then man proposes and man disposes! I guess we did not have what it takes to be true adventurers. ( Ralph Waldo Emerson has said that it takes little more than a pair of shoes to be a true adventurer, but then I think he was talking about climbing hills and trudging along forest trails!)

In the end we panicked and stayed put where we were. Anok now goes to a posh school, Suchandra still teaches at CGHS, and I am still doing whatever I've always done for the last 25 years. People who visit our farm at Kamarpara often think of us as super achievers. That is not true at all. We are under-achievers par excellance. We have not fulfilled 10% of the promises we made to ourselves.