Subban The Gardener

February 19 2011

This incident was happened before 13 years back

James S. Hewett is a wonderful inspirational writer. I happened to read a portion of his book,"Illustrations Unlimited", and I could not control myself but post that little inspirational story in my Blog.It is a story about a man called, "Subban". Sans much ado, let us read about Subban

I did my higher secondary in  a school called Viswadeepthi in Pollachi, there lived a mentally retarded adult named Subban. It was during depression years and there was no place for Subban to be "kept" but at School. He lived there with his wife and they survived on the work that Subban did as a gardener.

He had a proverbial "green thumb," and the places where he did the gardening were easy to identify. The lawns,shrubs, hedges, flowers--all showed care, skill, and loving attention. Subban also did "volunteer" work. He cut grass, raked leaves, and planted flowers in what would otherwise have been unsightly vacant lots.

He was probably best known for his "oil can." He always carried a small can of lubricating oil in his hip pocket. A squeaky door or hinge or gate always got a "free" dose from Subban's oil can.

Never a Sunday went by that Subban was not in school church with his wife. Yes, we boys tried to "tease" him. But he always got the better of us because he refused to be anything but cheerful, full of good humor and totally unflappable.

Subban died a few years after I left town to do my +2 in Chennai. It was not easy to arrange, but I went back for the funeral. I was not prepared for what I saw. It seemed that everyone in town had decided to attend the funeral and there were scores of others, like myself, who had traveled from distant places to be there.

Without consciously attempting to do so, Subban had patterned for us the kind of life that really matters. No, he had not achieved fame, fortune, or honor. But he had been a worker, an optimist, an "easer of tensions" and a faithful gardener. He was a man who "overcame" a handicap that he didn't even know he had.