For my part, i have always loved flowers. And plants as well. As earlier stated, the Madurai Malli has been a personal favourite.
Many a picture has been clicked from my camera. Many an incomplete poem resides : half in paper, half in my mind. A few posts have also found their way on to this blog ! Today, i was in an institution where i spotted this.
And of course, wondered, if i can ever continue to do all what i do. Read that carefully. There are twenty-four items that the reader is asked not to do. This left me staring in open mouthed awe.
If you really wanted to do something bad to a flower or a plant, you could. Couldn’t you ! But, in 24 different ways ! Phew !
I wonder if all of this was thought through and made at one go. Or one statement over a period of time, has expanded to become as all-encompassing as possible !
And that includes ‘borrow, break, pinch..’ etc. The essence however resides in the last line. Which states ‘touch’ !
But wait a minute. How can you borrow, break, pinch, endanger, mutilate etc…without touching ?Maybe..maybe…
Did they get to see my snaps ? Or worse, did they read my poems ? Did someone complain ? Or are there many like me ?
And i thought, the only thing that you could do with a flower was to let it be ! Ssshhh..! Dont say that aloud. Twenty five ways’ has a nice ring to it.
Twenty four ways are scary enough !
15 responses
YOU ARE AT IT, AGAIN. YOU SAW WHAT I DIDN’T SEE THE WHOLE OF LAST YEAR. NICE OBSERVATION AT THAT.
what was the idea behind having the barbed wire in the fence show prominently?
that those fences do little in the way of protecting those flowers?
🙂
And Do plant plants.
Looks like the above said was all done by the people and thaz why the board. Well who reads them by the way?
Sometimes
some amongst them
speak their mind;
Brilliantly yellow
in the sun
she stands,
her extended family
nodding
in the breeze;
Some elders
looking out
for truant young ones
Trying to peer
inquisitively
through
the barbed wire…
Those two legged
twerps
talibanize gardens
with their
weapons of the mind….
Cut, grab, crush
into a fist;
When will they learn
that
Happiness
means
having your own space
and letting others be….
The world over.
Someone who has painfully watched people dealing with flowers must have put that board.. but touching flowers does not necessarily have cruel intentions…
I bet a lawyer made that sign board…
All those words in the middle – the 24 – they almost draw all the attention off of the ‘DO NOT’. Wouldn’t that be a funny defense!
hmmm. let the flowers be, let the waves be, the sun set its own way..we can only look and sigh and love the moment and let it pass by, coz if we do any more, it will just wither away..loved the post!!
I liked the idea of putting a sign board like that…m sure it must b drawing quite a few eye balls!
keen observers eye that u always come across banners like these…i wonder how i miss these hoardings..me not an observer at all.
u open up a world for me.
That guy wudnt have put in that much mind while making the board, or possibly thought the people reading it wud need accurately a reason not to do, u know people who argue..im not touching it, im pinching it off!!…neways he got his point across!!
I cannot tolerate these kind of signs. I think the person who designs them is VERY unhappy. And want everyone else to share the misery. I had a post similar to this about a sign in my neighborhood.
http://brokenheartedmom.blogspot.com/2009/09/friday-55-rules.html
DO NOT..and yet our ppl dare to right? hmm new here…cya around often…tak care.
HaRy
The sign-writer has quite a vocabulary, evidently.
He/she should just have written- “Behave yourselves” and all the 24 ways would have been included!:)
NS Iyer : Sir ! Strict laws always catch my eye !! And this one wasnt any lenient! Atleast didnt seem to be ! 🙂
Sundar : Fences are symbols. And thats that ! 🙂
Hobo : Am not sure.
Priya : I am not sure of who else reads them. But people like me sure do. Atleast, i do !
🙂
Ugich Konitari :
When will they learn
that
Happiness
means
having your own space
and letting others be….
Lovely ! So lucid. Yet so difficult for the world to catch !
Aativas : Hmm ! That someone has done something is sure ! 🙂
Neha : If you say so… well, i have to accept that ! Whatsay ! 🙂
Sujatha : Absolutely ! Absolutely. Thats a logical defense too !! Absolutely !
🙂
sujata : Thanks ! yes.. i guess letting things be is such a difficult ask, in the world preoccupied with doing something !
NR : Well, i am not sure. It caught mine though !
Rush : Well, well, thank you ! I hope to continue this way !
and this chap sure did find a symbolic way of conveying his point! Didnt he ! Or did he !?!
Lou : Frankly, it made me squirm ! I didnt think of the chap who wrote it. I thought of the flower ! And wondered, what it must have been thinking ! If it had the power to think !
Hary : Welcome here ! And yes our people do ! Indeed !
Manju : 🙂 Be – have !! hmm !!