India, Oct. 3 -- Garden. A simple word that arouses a sense of colour and fragrance. Poet Ralph Waldo Emerson famously wrote, the earth laughs in flowers. The way a garden helps in moulding life are many. To the eye, flowers bring joy. Flowers of different hues from roses, hydrangeas, fuchsias, wisteria, daisies, maples in temperate climate, and jasmine, gardenia, chrysanthemum, petunias, in sub-temperate zones, to name a few. They bring calmness, joy and happiness which is unfiltered by any questions or judgment. It's been proven scientifically that gardens and gardening are therapeutic. In many medical institutions, gardening is a preferred way for mental simulation for persons suffering with neurological problems. When one bends down and works in a garden with fingers, it helps to re-energise the entire nervous system. The garden can be a source of health. Today, it has become common to grow herbs and vegetables at home - even in pots - as it gives a sense of satisfaction on producing one's own food. There can be no value put on it. Alexander Antonelli, director of science at the Royal Botanical Gardens, in the book, The Hidden Universe, brings out that scientists have been able to compile data from some 40,000 plants of known uses by traditional communities around the world as sources of medicine, food, fibre, shelter, timber, energy, oil, pharmaceuticals, etc. The garden teaches patience. A good gardener knows that if she propagates a seed or cutting today, it will take two years for the plant to grow. It teaches a person to wait and not expect results instantly. In this age of rush and stress, the garden is an oasis of peace and reflection. It makes one calm and happy. The inner turmoil seems to bow down before the outer colourful landscape. A garden makes one accept decay, degeneration and then regeneration. The fear of mortality is not in a flower or a tree. The leaf of the tree knows that it shall fall to the ground and decay. The flower will bloom to its heart's content in its time. The shrub knows this phase is temporary. Rain is temporary and it's only a matter of time that the sun will shine and its branches will be laden with flowers again. Plants exude hope. Gardening teaches humility. It is our gardener who teaches us when to root the cutting, how to prune a rose, where to pinch the geranium, petunias and pansies, where and when to cut creepers for maximum growth. If the heart is open, respect follows for the gardener, who becomes the teacher. Both Leo Tolstoy and Mahatma Gandhi taught the virtue of working with the hands. The very act of having soil in one's hand connects one to the earth. All that is good flows from the earth whether it's the meaning of life, humility or happiness. In a world where money and power are worshipped, where humans have to be torn away from their mobile phones and flickering screens, there are still flowers that grow naturally. AI and all media tools cannot replicate the actual flower and make it bloom in our garden. So, a flower and gardener's worth cannot be measured in monetary terms. As Antonelli writes: "As stars care little about what we think about them when we gaze into the void, flowers and biodiversity are not really here for us. But one thing is certain, we cannot be here without them."...