Prashanth Kumar is not so sure if he has a soul. But if he has one, he wants it to be happy before it takes off to wherever souls go. Being a nature enthusiast, he believes his soul will be most comfortable amid nature and hence wants to create an atmosphere of greenery at the place where he thinks his soul would depart his body.
“When we struggle to build up comfort all around when we are alive, this place is often neglected. But this is where we all end up,” says Kumar, petting the plants he had planted on the premises of the electric crematorium on Mavoor Road in the city.
It was his committed effort of over two years that converted the crematorium into the serene place it is now, with at least a hundred rare plants occupying every available space. Here, one finds the ‘Nenmeni Vaka’, which finds mention in Kalidasa’s Shakunthalam, ‘Neermathalam’ that writer Madhavikutty held so close to her heart, and even the Mangostine, which shot to fame through the works of Vaikom Muhammed Basheer.
For those who are familiar with Malayalam film songs and wondered what exactly were ‘Kadambam’, ‘Poovarassu’, ‘Pavizhamulla’, ‘Rajamalli’, ‘Parijatham’ and ‘Ezhilam pala’, Kumar has planted them all at the crematorium with the name tags. “I have travelled far and wide to find them and have spent quite a sum on them. I have a lot more plants that I want to plant here,” he says.
It was a two-hour-long wait at the crematorium during the cremation of a relative that made Kumar, a film distributor who lives at Eranhipalam, realise the possibilities of the place. He had earlier executed similar projects on the premises of the Thayat Bhagavathi temple at Eranhipalam and on roadsides, besides his own courtyard. The crematorium staff turned to be his kindred spirits and agreed to cooperate with his plan for the place.
“My dream is to get three acres, which I would like to develop into a garden with all these rare plants on the lines of Lalbagh in Bangalore,” he said not hiding his anxiety over the corporation’s plan to modernise the crematorium that may spell doom for the plants.