If you’re a fellow ‘plant parent’ like me, you would understand the pain of having pesky people plucking your beautiful flowers and fruits when you’re not around. People have also been caught on camera doing so in the past. For instance, a Lucknow man drove up in a car to steal someone’s houseplant, or how a Delhi man brazenly stole planters from a vertical garden.
A Twitter user shared a very relatable rant after facing the same situation of people plucking his flowers without permission:
WHY DO PEOPLE THINK IT'S OKAY TO PLUCK YOUR FLOWERS WITHOUT YOUR PERMISSION AND WHEN YOU ASK THEM NOT TO, SAY IT'S FOR PUJA AS IF THAT MAKES IT OKAY?
— Peter Griffin (@zigzackly) March 29, 2021
But seriously, WT actual F?
This really … annoys me. I dislike flowers in vases and bouquets and garlands; I like to see them on the branch. I grow them because I like them. And you want to steal it for your imaginary friend. Fcukers.— Peter Griffin (@zigzackly) March 29, 2021
Today, I happened to be near the front door when I heard the gate creak. Opened it to see neighbour exiting with handful of flowers, including lilies that had just opened. The family is very wealthy. They grow no plants in a 'hood where everyone has place to grow things.
..— Peter Griffin (@zigzackly) March 30, 2021
No, I say. While my mind is indignantly demanding to know why I am explaining, I explain that I like flowers around me, like the butterflies and bees that visit.
We, she says, offer these to god.
Then she offers to put them back.
My brain retires, bruised beyond repair, and
..— Peter Griffin (@zigzackly) March 30, 2021
Yeah, I know. But the bigger tree flowers all the time, and I didn't plant it, I just water it.
I tell her, if she likes the lilies so much, I have separated some bulbs that have sprouted, and she can have some. It's an offer I have made to other neighbours. She accepts.
..— Peter Griffin (@zigzackly) March 30, 2021
Lily stems.
Note that the flowers that had begun to wilt were left behind. Only the best for the altar. pic.twitter.com/aQFSZ6u0F4— Peter Griffin (@zigzackly) March 30, 2021
I'm bad at meditation, though I'm learning, with a friend's help.
Now that I know a bit more about it, though, I know that gardening (also making art) naturally puts me in a meditative state. Open, yet focussed, mindful, calm, feeling a connect with nature, with other life forms.— Peter Griffin (@zigzackly) March 30, 2021
Some people shared what they say or do in such a situation:
I like turning the tables on them by saying, “so you’re going to use stolen flowers for your pooja, huh?” Doesn’t usually stop them, but the uncomfortable expression on their face is worth it.
— P. S. Nissim (@ps_nissim) March 29, 2021
Gotta give points for effort, though. Six-foot wall and all.
— Peter Griffin (@zigzackly) March 30, 2021
A nearby aunty used to do the same and when I asked her to stop this, she completely denied. I said that she is captured in CCTV. Then she said that its for Bhagwan. I sternly said do not pluck flower again.
— shashi Raj ششی راج शशि राज (@shashirajjj) March 30, 2021
I normally tell them that the blessings go to the person who owns the flowers and than them for doing it for me
— Natasha 🌈 نتاشا (@nuts2406) March 29, 2021
Time for some poison ivy.
— Karamazov (@cricfan110) March 29, 2021
Others recounted their own similar experiences:
Someone plucked all the chilies from my small plant in the window grill on Diwali day! It was so disheartening because I'd taken care and watched them grow since lockdown began 🙁 https://t.co/ei9ZG0m0RW
— Simonah (@mindyourhead_ok) March 30, 2021
my dad would yell at aunties who treated our garden as their private flower supply chain 🙂
and they always went after his favorite shoeflowers aka hibiscus. there was a rare white one which bloomed once in few months which was plucked within the evening by them OVER OUR WALL. https://t.co/Mc6i4d1gvf
— (((Dominique Fisherwoman))) 💙 (@AbbakkaHypatia) March 29, 2021
I have a lady in my society who starts her plucking process from 5 am.I used to think the same.Then I stopped her one day when I was up early for a flight. She smiled & blessed me. She is 90+ and belongs to one of the richest families in my Society. This activity motivates her. https://t.co/RdSTjqaPXx
— Deepal.Trivedi (@DeepalTrevedie) March 29, 2021
Has something like this ever happened to you? Tell us!
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