Potted plant and caged bird

A smashed coconut shell was left on the ground. Over the course of time it collected dirt and soil. A bird ate some basil seeds. The bird flew around, took a perch on the smashed coconut shell. The bird was eating basil seeds and clumsily dropped a basil seed into the coconut shell.

After a while, the seed felt moist, warm and nourished.It grew into a basil plant. These were old times, there was never a need to grow a plant in box, or pots as we call them now. There were no cities, people lived harmoniously with nature. People were also unaware that they live harmoniously with nature. That is how life was, so they didn’t bother creating a complex a word such as :harmonious for it.

The basil seed in the coconut shell became a local spectacle. There is a plant, people who’d seen the basil plant, would tell other people, “and you can move it!”. “What non-sense, we know plants grow where they are planted, how can this basil plant move?”, the incredulous audience would say. It was beyond amazing for people to see a plant that you could move around. It was kind of like seeing a cat growing out of the ground by its tail!

The people declared the basil as a special occurrence of nature and gave it its special place in their village. Nothing really was seen as unholy and so there wasn’t a need to declare anything as holy either, but the basil plant served as a humble reminder we don’t know the realm of myriad possibilities in this world.

Sadly however, as time goes one finds it difficult to see beauty and specialness in things once very beautiful, and very special. The concept of growing plants in boxes from special, became cool and convenient, and from there it became regular and commonplace. Alas! In times like these, it was also acceptable to find a beautiful bird and to put it in a cage. In this age was the first time a beautiful bird in a cage saw a beautiful basil plant in a box. This was someone’s backyard. They thought that hanging a beautiful bird in a cage in a beautiful garden would be a very sweet idea. I think it is sweeter than hanging a beautiful bird in a cage in a drab room.

The bird looked at the basil plant for a while. Finally, it said, “You look just like the other plants, but you’re free!”. “You’re not bound to one place in the ground. I wish I was free, but I’m inside this cage , I can look outside but I don’t know what it feels like to talk to the open skies, to tumble myself up in it, to feel tiny in its vastness.”

The basil plant said, “Aww, little bird, thank you! I’d never seen this as some kind of freedom. Its ironic, to us plants, freedom means to be planted in mother earth in a spot. Just like you miss being a part of a bigger sky, I miss being a part of a bigger ground. This box separates me from feeling the vastness of mother earth.”