Mumbai woman makes world gift 270 saplings for dad's 80th b'day

MUMBAI: Birthdays are about celebrations and gifts, and this Powai daughter has succeeded in making the world a leafier place on her father's special day; a return gift of sorts.
Three months ago, Jayshree Ramesh, along with her family, started an innovative project to bring in TK Viswanathan's 80th birthday on Sunday, June 28. The family connected with relatives and friends in different parts of the world and requested them to plant a sapling each.Jayshree's target was 80 saplings, but her relatives and friends across the world have managed to plant as many as 270.
A total of 140 people participated in the project and sent in videos and photos of the saplings that will hopefully grow into towering trees.
"We received such an overwhelming response that we did way more than our target of 80 trees. We covered all continents, except Antartica. A friend and her team at work even took this up as a community activity and planted 50 trees along the river Pullam in USA," said Ramesh. Some of the countries covered included China, France, Canada and Australia. The video and photos from the world over will be shown to Vishwanathan at a celebration planned in Chennai on Sunday.
Vishwanathan and his wife C A Rajam live with their children in Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore.
The family called the project Haritham, which means greenery in Sanskrit. "My parents are ardent nature enthusiasts and had planted more than 600 saplings in Trikkur, Kerala, almost 35 years ago. They are now lush-green trees. We wanted to gift him 80 saplings as a surprise for his birthday. But instead of planting these in our own backyard, we decided to spread the message across the world," said Ramesh.
"It was our way of expressing gratitude to the people who had planted trees all these years ago, the fruit of which we are enjoying today. The project also helped us reconnect with our friends and family. We even made several new friends," she said.
Many of those who participated have decided to take the celebrations forward. "A lot of friends have told us that they too are going to celebrate birthdays in a similar way, and it is great to know that the message will be carried ahead," said Ramesh.
"It was a very enriching experience and great to know they were communicating a social message though this celebration. So we decided to be a part of it and plant a sapling. This is the first time that I heard about something like that," said Neeta Srinivas, a Powai resident.