Portland's Japanese Garden

The term "Pacific Northwest" is used with reference to the geographical region between the Pacific Ocean in the west and Rocky mountains on the east.  Oregon and Washington states of the United States of America and British Columbia province of Canada form the core geographical areas of the region.  Sometimes even Alaska and the northern mountainous regions of California are also included in this term.  The area has bountiful natural beauty with the Pacific ocean on the one side and the coastal mountains, Cascade range, Olympic mountains, Columbia mountains and the Rocky mountain range on the other.  The Mount Rainier National Park with the 14,410 feet high Mount Rainier in the Washington Cascades is one among the many tourist attractions in the area.  Columbia river that runs through the region and joins the Pacific ocean has cut a deep and wide gorge around the rim of the Columbia plateau and created many beautiful tourist spots.  It is said that after Mississippi, more water flows through this river in the entire country. Vancouver BC, Seattle and Portland are the major cities in the Pacific Northwest. Water bodies, hills and rich vegetation have made the area attractive to visitors. Many man made monuments and attractions have enhanced the places of tourist interest.

"Japanese Garden" in the city of Portland, Oregon is one such man made attraction for the tourists. Pacific Northwest has a large Japanese population and Portland is one of the centers that attracted Japanese in big numbers since the last decades of 19th century. Sapporo city in the Japanese island of Hokkaido is the sister city of Portland, Oregon. The Japanese Garden in Portland is made and supervised by the Japanese Garden Society of Oregon on a Not-for-Profit basis.  Proclaimed as the most authentic Japanese garden outside of Japan, the garden is formed in the west hills of the city of Portland. Spread over an area of 5.5 acres, the natural hilly slopes provide the setting for the garden.  The five distinct garden styles that constitute a typical Japanese Garden are blended here to give the desired effect of realizing a sense of peace, harmony and tranquility. The garden generates a feeling in the visitor of being a part of nature.  The garden aims to provide a living reflection of the history and traditional culture of Japan.

The layout of the garden is influenced by the Shinto, Buddhist and Taoist philosophies. The visual compositions of stones, water and plants provide a higher blend of aesthetic sense than meets the eye. The three essential elements of a Japanese garden are harmonized to provide the composite experience to the visitor.  Stones form the bones of the landscape with water acting as the life giving force.  The third element, plants, provide the tapestry on which the multiple colors of the seasonal flowers provide the final dimension.  Stones are used to give shape to the layout with well laid pathways and Pagodas, stone lanterns, water basins completing the visual effect.  Size of these visual aids is maintained in relation to human scale to give a feeling of being one with the nature.  Native trees that were existing at the time of creation of the garden are retained to enable blending with the natural view around the garden.  Carefully placed stone stepping along the pathway in wooden settings gives comfort while moving around in the garden.

The garden is basically divided into five parts; Flat Garden, Standing Pond Garden, The Tea House Garden, Natural Garden and Stand & Stone Garden.  The visual effect on the visitor varies with the seasons as each season brings with it its own flowers and colors.  The best time to visit is said to be when the riot of colors is displayed with the roses in full bloom.  Our visit was in winter and yet the garden gave its edition of wintery pleasure.  Each tree and plant in the garden was cut and trimmed appropriately and gave a view of perfection and aesthetic delight. The birds, fish and other small animals enhanced the natural beauty of the garden.

A wooden hall created within the garden provides place for exhibition of paintings, talk shows and lectures. Workshops for Bamboo Fence Building, Stone Pavement Making, Maple Pruning demonstrations and Pine Pruning are conducted here. A Kadomatsu workshop for preparing Japanese New Year decorations is also held for interested members of the society and general public.

Our visit to the garden last Sunday was on a rainy day.  Moving around in the garden appeared to be impossible when we started our journey towards the garden. Fortunately for us, the rain took rest for two hours just as we reached the garden and resumed as soon we finished our visit and returned to the parking lot.  Visit to the Japanese Garden in Portland will always remain a memorable experience.                        

Lord Ganesha and Auto Drivers

With another hefty increase in auto fares last week, it is time to remember some auto incidents. One good thing with the current increase is that it solves the problem of finding change to pay auto bills. Minimum fare at twenty rupees is much better than the earlier seventeen rupees. Three rupees were never returned and now we can be satisfied that it has been paid legally. A hundred rupee note is the minimum requirement to get into an auto and fare is always rounded off to the nearest ten rupees. This solves the problem of searching the purse for small change. Beggars who were beneficiaries of the refunded coins also do not mind now. Their minimum acceptance level is also revised upwards and anything less than ten rupees is likely to be returned with some bad words.

Autos are in great demand on festival days. Those are the days when people moving in groups, usually their own families, stand in street corners and hoping that a vacant auto would come their way. Auto drivers also have their own families and they also have their own Lord Ganesha to worship. They are fortunate not to be bound by the list of holidays issued by the Government or an employer. Their family also needs to move around on festival days and hence they work on that day without being paid. The net result of all these is an excessive demand against a poorer supply.

Sometime back I was waiting in a street corner with a friend, who had come from another city, looking for an auto. Many vacant autos ran past us but none responded to our hailing.  He was wondering what was happening. I told him that auto licenses in Bangalore were mostly given to Physically Handicapped persons as a source providing employment to them. As the license cannot be given away to blind persons, most of them were issued to deaf persons. He appreciated the idea and said it was a very good policy and should be emulated by other cities as well. But he also wondered whether it was not a hazard as the drivers would not be able to hear the honking of the other vehicles. I told him it was not so because even those with normal hearing capacity would end up as deaf in a few years due to the abnormal level of honking in the chaotic traffic. Why not start being deaf rather than ending as deaf?  The illogical logic also appealed to him and he appreciated the idea even more. He was to be in our city for a week and got used to the system of hailing autos including shouting with outstretched hands and twisting the whole body. On the last day of the trip I offered to walk him to the street corner for finding an auto to go to railway station. He smiled and replied, "Now I know how to catch an auto. I always shout two words before announcing my destination. Like 'Double meter Jayanagar' or Double meter Malleswaram'. All auto drivers can hear such hailing even if they are otherwise deaf or pretend to be deaf. Do not worry, I will find an auto easily!".

The day veteran Kannada Cinema actor Raj Kumar died was a a nightmare for people in Bangalore, especially for those who were caught in the traffic jam. The auto in which I was sitting was near Kantheerava stadium when government decided to move the actor's body there to enable the people to pay their last respects. We were surrounded by a sea of vehicles with nowhere to go. One had to move in any direction one could find some space to move unmindful of what his destination was. Hundreds of working people, including women and aged, had to walk for miles. My auto driver procured a xerox photo of Raj Kumar by paying ten rupees from a hawker and pinned it on the wind shield. He asked me whether I was a Raj Kumar fan and I said I certainly was since the age of six. We exchanged the names of films we had seen and both of us had seen nearly all his movies. He managed to drive on footpath and anywhere there was some space to go. After three hours of moving in every possible direction he brought me to our house. He politely refused my offer of a higher fare and said it was unfair for him to accept it on a day when his beloved actor died. "I would have refused even the normal fare as a tribute to him and gone home with the pleasure of having taken one of his fans home safely. But the extra driving has consumed all the petrol in the auto. I need money for tomorrow's plying. Hence I have to accept the normal fare much against my will", he said.

Back to Ganesha festival. Some twenty five years  ago I met two auto drivers who had totally opposite view points about the festival. Early morning we set out with our two small children to reach a house where the extended family was to meet to celebrate the festival together. Autos were already in demand by that time and we managed to get one after sometime. I asked the auto driver whether he would perform Ganesha pooja. He said his wife and children demanded that he should stay back that day at home for the festival. But he wanted to be on the road to enable people to move around for their pooja rather than stay at home. As a compromise his entire family got up as early as 3 AM and finished their pooja by 6 AM so that both their wishes were fulfilled. Once pooja done, family members wanted him to join them for lunch in the afternoon. He was ready but with a rider that he will be back again on the road after lunch. His real goal was to serve as many devotees as possible to move around and celebrate the festival.

On the way back in the evening it was nearing 9 PM. We managed to hail another auto and I put the same question to this auto driver too. This man had a different outlook. He said his Ganesha was with the devotees whom he was carrying that day since 5 AM in the morning. You are the last passenger today. After dropping you I am going home. At home every one will be ready for pooja. I join them for pooja and we celebrate the festival now.  My family members have agreed for this arrangement".

Both auto drivers succeeded in satisfying the demands of their family members and yet managed to move a large number of devotees for their festival. It was nice to know that Lord Ganesha also got up very early to accept the pooja from one of them and also stayed awake late in the night to receive offerings from the other!