MOVIE VS NURSERY

                             MOVIE VS NURSERY

 

LT COL NOEL ELLIS

28/II/2024

A journey which started with five pots has now turned into a hobby very close to my heart. If anyone gives me an offer to go for a movie or visit a nursery, I will choose the latter.

The economics of a movie versus a nursery is simple. A single person will spend at least 1000 bucks plus petrol and parking to watch a movie and the price triples if you are a family of three. In that amount the number and varieties of plants you can buy is self explanatory.

The pleasure of a plant/flower may last for three days, three months, maybe three years or more. A movie, max three hours. In a nursery every flower and plant is a hero or heroine unlike a movie. Villains are common, like pests and weeds.

There are just a few Actors and Actresses which you see over and over again in different roles in movies. Here, there could be one plant, in multiple colours, shapes and sizes. Their colours are far more than the emotions those ‘kalakars’ display.

A nursery charges nothing for having a look. If you do not like one, you can go to another one. If you have bought an entry ticket for a movie, you can lump it if it doesn’t strike a chord with you. In a nursery there is no such suffering or agony. There is only ecstasy and pleasure.

The amount of time for a film to be produced and a plant to bloom is almost the same but the budget is far less for a plant. The plant can flop too, depending on how you nurture it. The story line matters.

Nursery is not a time pass like a movie. It is serious business. Some movie buffs don’t miss out on the first day first show but for a nursery buff like me, a visit to a nursery is more entertaining.

What lessons does one carry after leaving the movie hall? If it is a tragedy kind, people get emotional and come out crying, not so from any nursery. One even tends to forget the story line before reaching the car parking. In a nursery, the imprint that the flowers and plants leave on you is a permanent mark.

There is no jostling, pushing, shoving, or elbowing in a nursery like you have in a movie hall. You sit in the dark, in contrast in a nursery you are in natural light. Nursery has no show timings and automatically shuts at dusk. There is no ticket window, just a walk in or drive in. Some couples spend money to get privacy in a movie hall. People get confused about which movie to see.

Nursery is pure nature and a movie is sermons through fiction. What we learn from nature cannot be taught by a film. There is no time limit in a nursery unlike the three-hour cycle of a movie. You can halt at any plant longer than the other, whereas if one is not paying attention in the movie the scene can be missed. Here one can walk back and revisit that plant.

In a nursery one can bargain. Try it at the movie ticket window, you will be thrown out of line. If you are late to enter the movie hall, you may miss the beginning. In a nursery, the plants keep waiting for you without bothering about time. Movie hall is the only place where people are punctual, otherwise coming late is our mentality. Nursery lays no binding of that sort.

One learns new names of plants, about manures, about plant care etc. In a movie, you hardly learn anything. Except how to keep quiet, and keep your legs folded without pushing the chair of the man infront. In a nursery you do not step on other peoples feet or grope in darkness.

One can walk at leisure, enjoy the pleasure, feel good and smile, slip on the wet mud and laugh it off. Pluck a fruit or two if allowed and use all the senses. In a movie hall, it is the smell of popcorn and of course the smell of breaking wind by the people around.

Fresh air is the hallmark of a nursery. It is the stale and recirculated air in a movie hall. There is no security protocol in the Nursery, no body scans, and no X rays of your purses. There are no controversies about standing for the national anthem either when it is played.

You spend less than half the time in a nursery and can pick up quite a few plants at the cost of a movie ticket, which can last you for days, months or a lifetime.

Nursery is the place for me any day. What is yours? I wonder!!!!!!!!!!

 

JAI HIND

© ® NOEL ELLIS