BENGALURU : In 2015, Jayalakshmi Gopaladesakan started her garden with a pumpkin patch. The garden in her house is dear to her as she had waited all her life to grow her own plants. Now at 78, she is the happiest when she is among her plants.Gopaladesakan always loved plants, but all through her life, she never had the time for it. While she was studying in Pathamadai Government School, her father Seshadri lost a leg during the freedom struggle and as a result, lost his job.
Gopaladesakan had to take up a lot of odd jobs to put her siblings through school. In 1968 — at the age of 28 — she got married, and she got busy down the years as she helped her late husband, Gopaladesakan D, run a pharmaceutical company, Jaya Pharmaceuticals, which was named after her. When he passed away 20 years ago, Gopaladesakan’s work only doubled, again making it impossible for her to maintain a garden as she wanted to.
“Four years ago, we moved to our own place in Tambaram. I live with my youngest son, Seshadri, his wife and two sons. I found enough space around the house to plant trees. I started with a pumpkin patch without giving much thought into it,” she says. Gopaladesakan planted the seeds to see if they’d grow. When the plant yielded its first fruit, a big, bright orange pumpkin, she cut it and distributed it among her four children — three sons and a daughter — and their families. “I was so happy to be the cause of such happiness for my whole family,” she smiles.
Today, she grows pomegranate trees, papaya trees, citron trees, Arabian jasmines, chillies, flat beans, Asian pigeonswings, kanakambaram, tomatoes, tulsi, tiger’s ear and beatle vines. Near the entrance of her house, she also grows badam, neem and henna trees. She grows some of these on ground, and she has moved the others to pretty brown earthen pots.
“I use kitchen waste as manure, keep my plants in the shade and water them with care that is almost nursing — I care for these plants like I’d care for my children,” she says, adding that she sees them on par with human beings. “They remind me of my own grandchildren,” she adds.
Gopaladesakan’s grandchildren love her plants as much as she does, and they take the yield to their friends. Today, her papayas are quite popular in all their friends’ circles.What’s more? She has a few medicinal plants too, and uses them to treat certain diseases and to keep the body healthy.