by Mothiur Rahman

Created on: May 15, 2009   Last Updated: December 17, 2009

I am the 21 year old son of second generation immigrants living in the East End of London. Living in such an urban surrounding, with modern influences in every direction, I never thought-growing up-that I would ever have the slightest of interest in gardening. I was busy playing football, computer games and the general time wasting older members of society associate with our kind.

My parents on the other hand, inherited a love for gardening from their parents. My grandparents are from Bangladesh, and they grew most of their own food when they were back home. When they came to England, they carried this tradition with them, and did not let the significantly less infertile soil of the Great British Isles, prevent them from fulfilling their desire to experience that feeling of accomplishment they felt when they were in Bangladesh; after growing the plants that would provide them with sustenance. For them gardening was a way of life.

My parents were less reliant on gardening for food. After all, the supermarket was just a couple of minutes walk away. Nevertheless, they were also keen garndeners, but did it only as a hobby. On the spring of 2006 however, my mum persuaded me to give her a hand in growing a few traditional plants. My dad had a slight back injury so she played a few motherly guilt tricks on me and rebutted every excuse I threw at her-as mums do. So I ended up softening the ground with a fork, and she planted some marrow seeds as well as scattering some coriander seeds-ones I did not think would grow; a judgement I based on my superior understanding of science. I mean, you could not just scatter them. They had to be pointing upwards right? Incredibly that was all we did that day, and for that year I did not do any more gardening. Little did I know how those couple of hours would end up changing my perspective on the whole of humanity for good.

In the weeks that followed, I found myself strangely interested in the progress of these plants. It only took about a week for me to see the coriander appear, and when I saw them for the first time, after briefly wondering how science had failed me I felt a joy that was alien yet somehow embarrasing. I was not supposed to enjoy this because it was my parents' job to enjoy the fruits of such primitive labour. I was supposed to be having fun by doing teenage stuff like going out with friends...and...other things. Whether I wanted to or not, I did feel a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment when I saw those tiny

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