During my morning walk one day, I walked across the residential garden of the State Deputy Speaker Sananda Marndi. I saw a riot of colours as flowers of various species bloomed in the garden. I could not resist the beauty and the desire to capture it in a photograph; and, therefore, I entered the garden. My eyes fell on a gentleman, clad in a t-shirt and shorts, toiling away in the garden soil. He was so engrossed in weeding out grasses from the chrysanthemum plots of the garden that he did not notice me standing by him; and all my entreaties fell upon deaf ears. Again, I asked him to reveal his identity. This time, being taken aback by my presence, he replied, “I am Dinakrishna Kar, an administrative officer of Odisha State Cadre, now engaged as the Private Secretary of Hon’ble Deputy Speaker.”
Later, during one of my meetings with the Deputy Speaker, I learnt that indeed his Private Secretary Mr Kar spends two hours daily in the garden with the gardener, working hard to beautify and maintain the garden of the residential office, which is his place of work.
“Today, it is rare to find an administrative officer devoting his time to gardening while attending to all other administrative duties in spite of the busy schedules,” said Mr Marndi.
People working with Mr Kar informed that the garden of Mr Marndi’s residential office had bagged the 2nd rank last year at the State flower exhibition held jointly by the Plant Lovers’ Association and the Regional Plant Resources Centre, Bhubaneswar. However this year, the garden topped the list of competitors and bagged the 1st position at Ekamrakanan, Bhubaneswar.
It is the hard work, dedication, and love for nature of Mr Kar that have been instrumental in transforming the garden into a piece of heaven.
Mr Kar says, “My heart dances with joy when I see the garden blooming with flowers and plants. This garden is the result of my labour of love. I have tended the saplings and the plants with the sweat of my brow. I have developed a habit of snatching time from my busy schedule for gardening; and I encourage my colleagues to follow suit.”
Indeed, this garden explains why a thing of beauty is a joy forever. This exemplary work of administrative officer Mr Kar deserved univocal commendation of all flower lovers assembled at the flower exhibition on January 13 and 14 at Ekamrakanan.