BENGALURU: Harini Swaminathan, all of 6 years, has not thrown a birthday party since her first. Instead, every year, she and her family plant 111 trees in different neighbourhoods in the city.
Her father Swaminathan, who works in an MNC, had taken this call after Harini turned two in July 2012. “In the first year, we planted only 100 trees,” he says. He follows Infinitheism, a philosophy that promises abundant success in all spheres of life, and he heard the guru Mahatria Ra talk of the power of number 11 in spirituality.
Since then, Swaminathan decided to increase the number of trees planted to 111.
“Harini’s first birthday was celebrated in the traditional way,” says her father, with rituals that included ear piercing and head tonsuring. Since then it has been heat and dust, out in the sun, planting trees.
Swaminathan moved to the city, from Chennai, in 2005.
He and his wife, both working in MNCs, have two children and they live with his parents. “I got this interest for greening the city from my mother Bama Narasimhan,” he says. “She has a garden and talks to her plants.”
Harini had questions about her birthday celebrations initially. “She has seen her friends celebrating birthdays with parties at the hotels, with fairy costumes, and asked me why hers are different,” says Swaminathan. “Her birthday celebrations are usually four to five hours in the hot sun or in the rain, spent in digging, planting, watering and setting the soil with manure for 111 trees.”
Swaminathan explained to his daughter that she is helping Mother Nature. “I tell her that she has planted about 544 trees till today and even if we think that only half have survived, it is still 272 trees which will home many birds and give shade to so many people for their lifetime of about 75 to 100 years,” he says. “The fruit trees she planted at a farmer’s stead has become a source of income for the family, and for generations... what could be a better legacy to leave in this world, what better way to celebrate a birthday.”
This might seem little comfort to a child but Harini seems to have taken it very well. “She starts to get excited about the tree planting in May or June every year,” says Swaminathan. “Her birthday comes in the fourth week of July.”
The family usually picks shade trees, except for the once when they planted fruit trees for a farmer. Janest Yegneswaran, founder of Trees for Free, helps Swaminathan pick the place and the trees. “She had a database of people and groups, including government departments, who are willing to provide space for the trees and are ready to care for them,” he says. “She does the ground work of going and checking the place out and helps with the clearances.”
Usually the planting is done in gated communities, so the approvals are mostly to be got from the residents’ associations.