a betrothal goes green

 

 

A prominent ritual in South Indian marriages is the distribution of packets of Thambulam (betel leaves, areca nut, banana and coconut) to invitees, just as they are leaving. But the Mayor of Chennai, M. Subramanian, whose son has just got married, dispensed with tradition and substituted the Thambulam packets with 30,000 saplings. Says he: “I was inspired by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, who has been planting a sapling on every birthday for the last 30 years. Much before my son’s marriage the Chennai Corporation had introduced a new scheme. As Chennai sees 80,000 to one lakh births yearly, we decided, as part of our green initiative, to gift a sapling each to the parents of the newborn. And we urged them to plant and nurture these as they nurtured their children. Come to think of it, saplings are also considerably less expensive than Thambulam.” The mayor gave his guests saplings of teak, jamun, neem, pungai, rosewood and puvarasu. Says Subramanian, “As some have bitter leaves I was asked by friends why I chose these for such a happy occasion. My short reply was that I was a rational person and had no faith in such claptrap.” Asked whether he is sure his effort has not been wasted, the mayor says he is certain that most of his guests would have planted the saplings, because he got nearly 200 calls the next day confirming the fact.” Indeed not only were his guests extremely happy with the gifts, they requested for more. The mayor agrees with TSI that crowded Chennai has scant space for plantations on a large scale, which is why he has proposed public parks as ideal planting sites.

Subramanian’s is by no means a sudden decision. It has long been a matter of faith with him, and every time he presides over a public function the organisers know that he will insist on planting a sapling at the end; so they never fail to bring one. This has been going on for the past two years – and one hopes the drive will go on in increasingly polluted Chennai which has been seeing a private vehicles explosion. The NGO Pasumaithayagam has planted more than four lakh trees in the last 14 years. Says S.K. Shankar, its vice-president: ''There is also global warming to consider. Part of our campaign is to ask two wheeler owners to plant and grow one tree and automobile users two.” Showering fulsome praise on the mayor, Shankar hopes more and more people will heed his example.