Cruelty to house plants

Is it right for us to keep plants at home? During a recent illness when I was confined to bed for a week with a pinched nerve in my right leg, I began to wonder how painful it must be for those whom we enslave and who cannot even express what they are going through.

I love to keep a few plants on the balcony of my house. What I did not realize was that buying a plant is like bringing an animal as a pet into the house. Unfortunately, most of us think that by bringing living creations of God into our homes we are sheltering them, whereas we are actually enslaving them.

We feed the plants when we wish to and water then when we find the time. Sometimes we forget to water them for days. This amounts to actually starving them. We have unwittingly tortured the natural creations we love so much. How would we feel if we have to skip a meal or go without food for even a single day? What happens to plants when we go away on holidays and they are not watered for days or weeks? They starve, wither and even die. We throw them away and buy fresh ones because we have the money to do so.

Is this the way to treat someone we love? We bring plants into our homes and deprive them on their basic need of sunlight. What right do we have to torture them to show off to the world that we are plant lovers? Some plants need more water, some less. Some have to be watered every day. Some have to be watered only once a week, or else they develop fungus and die a slow, painful death. Because of our little knowledge we are torturing these lovely, angelic creations.

It is time we realized that the most important thing in any life is freedom. We want freedom from our rulers and corrupt government, from pain and suffering, from others telling us what to do, from our parents nagging us, from our own children when they advise us during our old age, freedom even from death. So why are we robbing these poor innocent plants of their basic freedom to thrive in an open place, in sunshine and rain, in the care of their own creator?

RUSTOM A. HAVEWALLA

rustomhavewalla@gmail.com