Water lilies: here is a picture of nature's perfection, imperfection

Photo: KO Isaac

I felt so sad seeing this picture, in fact rather depressed. Out of the three water lily buds, two seem perfect and one is deformed or damaged. Is it a genetic deficiency or disfigurement caused by external forces? First I thought of cropping out the defective one but decided to keep it any way because that is reality, part of nature.

Water lily is a hardy plant that grows in fresh water bodies. Their flowers are very pretty. In the same field you can find water lily blooms of different colors. We have plenty of them in Olavipe, in the rice fields and in the lake, some times in the ponds and canals as well.

They die out when the water starts turning saline around December. But the bulbs containing the seeds – they are edible – remain embedded in the lake floor to sprout again when the rains come in June and salinity is neutralized. Where salt water doesn’t enter, you find water lilies throughout the year.

Out of one of those seeds that lay buried, the plant shown in the picture came up. Why did it produce a blemished bud? Will it open at all? Even if it does, no village girl will make a garland out of it and wear. No one would cut a flawed flower and display it in a vase.

We see this everyday in human life. In the same family some children are strong and healthy and some weak and sickly. There are so many mentally challenged people, physically handicapped ones. Why? And what can we do for them?

Ends.

Also see: Karthiki captures some Olavipe flowers