MINI FOREST: Srinivas' bungalow is a verdant landscape of small wonders

If it didn't sound so trite, you could call him the God of small things. You see, he has a green thumb-not really for growing plants as for cutting them to size. S. Srinivas has grown old (he is 61 now) pottering among the bonsai trees in his garden but the passion remains undiminished. "The plants are still so much a part of my life," says Bangalore-based Srinivas. They could now be a joyful part of someone's else life since he has donated his arboretum of 700 mini trees to Karnataka's famous botanical garden, Lalbagh.

"I used to spend 16 hours a day on bonsai trees," says Srinivas. "Now it is down to four or five hours." The lawyer who revels in his popular name of Bonsai Srinivas has spent half his life collecting bonsai plants from various parts of the country. The old bungalow in Bangalore's Jayanagar area where he lives is virtually a Lilliputian landscape-an undulating forest of tiny trees neatly laid out in concrete holders and ceramic pots.

Srinivas says he inherited the love for plants from his parents, especially his father Harohalli Seetharam, who was the city mayor in 1954. But to learn all about the art of reducing normal trees to miniature replicas, Srinivas went to books, mainly the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Even now this connoisseur keeps reading and imbibing more and more about his art. And it has borne fruit. Give him a bedraggled old shrub and he will convert it into an aesthetic arrangement of stems and leaves. The nursery on the terrace of his house is his laboratory, where he cuts, shapes and wires trees into their special form. He has a grand collection of potted banyan trees, most of them around 35 years old, many of them grown from seeds or cuttings.

Srinivas has a lot to teach enthusiasts. "A bonsai is often described as a living art," he explains. "Bonsai trees aren't difficult to grow. But do not treat them like houseplants because of their size; they are trees and should be treated as such. They will die if you keep them indoors during winter." He will also tell you that bonsai trees are like antiques-the older the trees the more expensive they are. Some of the costliest trees are in Japan and they are centuries old.

Srinivas' art can be traced to China. There are references that during the Tang dynasty (618-907) the Chinese began manipulative gardening to arrest the growth of trees so that they matured without achieving their normal size. The technique probably reached Japan during the Heian period (794-1191) through people who travelled to China. Bonsai took deep roots in Japan and, along with the tea ceremony, became part of its culture. Srinivas found the finest bonsai trees in Japan, where he attended two global bonsai meets. He brought two from Tokyo but they died as "only tropical trees grow in India".

Some people say bonsai originated in India. There are references to ayurvedic physicians carrying saplings of medicinal trees from the Himalayas and growing them in miniature form in pots by cutting the roots. By the 12th century vamanatanu vrikshadi vidya (science of dwarfing trees) was a popular preoccupation. It would then seem that bonsai is rediscovering its Indian roots at the 200-year-old green lung space of Lalbagh.

"If done properly, bonsai makes good business too," says Srinivas. A bonsai tree sells for Rs 300. Prices depend on the species and the age of the tree. Now the esoteric art may be closer to the common gardener. "The Bonsai Garden is being developed on 2.5 acres at a cost of nearly Rs 2 crore," says Dr G.K. Vasanth Kumar, director of the state Horticulture Department, who was instrumental in persuading Srinivas to donate his trees. "It will be the first of its kind in India. Along with 700 trees from Srinivas' collection, this Japanese-style garden will be landscaped with waterfalls, a stream, hillock, lawns and a serpentine walk, a wooden bridge, a lotus pond and even a pagoda." Srinivas, who will also be the principal adviser of a proposed bonsai training institute in Lalbagh, wants the garden named after his mentors-his late parents, Seetharam and Ratnamma.

Will he not miss the trees? "Yes, I will," says Srinivas, as he tends to the other plants in his garden. "At the same time I know they will be in safe hands and the public will learn to appreciate my collection over the years. There is no point in letting my children die a slow death when I will no longer be able to take good care of them. I am just waiting for work on the Bonsai Garden to be over." As do many lovers of bonsai in the Garden City and elsewhere.