Stone Hearts that Speak

A little conversation between me and the heartless

The heartless? Not the heartless humans!
Hard at sight, Not hard at Heart
The lifeless, Yet the “Life” it turns into
When rightly placed at the Heart
Of waterfalls, “The ROCKS!

In Nature’s guidance
In Sculpting my mind
Refining my thoughts TO
Unveil the NATURESCAPES
For you to see what I see!

When designs spark in my mind
Seeing through your eyes
Your dreams! Listening to your whispers!
An enchanting transformation enthralls
Re-creation in Nature’s own beauty!

As a Naturescapes designer, introducing water gardens to the Indian landscaping industry, during the early years of my entrepreneurial journey in the form of “Rock Pond,” I mostly work with rocks, pebbles, and boulders to create waterfalls, streams, and ponds, re-creating a complete natural ecosystem. It was in early 2000s, I introduced this concept as “Naturescapes,” the term also introduced by me (I did not find a Google search or anywhere online for this name at that time).

Amazing places, amazing personalities, mysterious and mystical people, I met along the way, helped me sculpt me and my baby, “PlantsEra Naturescapes.”

Naturescapes, as the name suggests, includes the five basic natural elements in the re-creation process; Earth, water, air, fire, and the sky, “the basic building blocks of LIFE!” It’s one of the main components of the Earth, the character I refer to, here in this story, “The ROCKS.” Through Naturescapes, I transform, with the magic wand from the Nature Wizard, the lifeless spaces into lively natural ecosystem to evolve into a place where life forms emerge for us humans to learn to live in harmony with and help sustain our beautiful planet.

In this beautiful journey of over a decade and a half, meeting some interesting characters in Nature who secretly share their dreams as and when I open my heart and mind to them and relish the little conversations we sprinkle in the air.

“Still waiting to meet some of them who I promised I’ll be back to play with.”

Their hazy whispers find their way to their destiny through me in the enthralling journey of re-creation working through to the artwork of Naturescapes in the mountains, grasslands, and foothills.

I love every characters I met along this travel with my son, Agnivesh, partner in “PlantsEra Naturescapes,” a 12-year-old self-learner, Nature-schooled. He is a preschool dropout with a history of one and a half months of preschooling.

As mentioned earlier, the most amazing ones of the characters, the ones most difficult to work with, the fearsome, are the “ROCKS!”

Beautiful rocks and boulders
Of different shapes, sizes, colors, designs
I observe and swallow every piece
Captured in my mind
They get imprinted in my memory
Perfect measurements, dimensions, and structure
Popping out as this Nature Wizard
Fixes and Paints them in the Naturescapes!

With every visualization, every design
These imprints of hundreds
And thousands of rocks
Resurrect! And when they do,
They jump out of my mind
And run around
Each one finding their destined spot
Fixing themselves tight and taut!

I sit back and wonder as and when the tough ones and troublemakers among them get into small fights finding the right spot, struggling to mount over. I let them play for a while. Some fix themselves in perfect positions, showing off their inner and outer beauty, but the rest of them rush to me and sit beside, trusting that I will help them find their way to play their role and I never fail them.

Now, the real challenge begins. The tougher ones, always being the smarter ones, already have secretly whispered their dream to stay invisible. So, I add them as fillers by which they gain their most powerful position of serving their purpose by being the strong pillars in creating a strong and sturdy structure. Some of them are given the interesting task of entertaining the fish or the turtles, the future occupants of the water feature. They play multiple roles, as protectors from the predators by guarding them by letting them hide beneath or just a piece of art that works the way through the arrows or rays as the sunrays reflects.

The biggest challenge I’ve ever had was with this one beautiful rock, very showy and at the same time very huge and difficult to handle. The magic began when this centerpiece eventually placed itself at its destined corner displaying its true beauty.

Spread Love! Spread Happiness!