Whenever I hear about Japanese gardens, a couple of things come to mind. The first thing of course is bonsais – the one thing that has come to define what being Japanese and Japanese gardens is all about. The other thing is the art of Zen. I have scarcely come across Japanese Gardens where the theme has not been Zen or Zen related. If the look and feel of the Japanese Garden is not inspired by Zen, then the house certainly is. If the house too is not, then the entire thing must be in Japan!

But coming back to Japanese Gardens, my fascination started when I came across the very first Japanese Garden of my life. My mother works in a language school and one of her colleagues is a Japanese professor. Naturally, he had spent a great deal of time in Japan, mastering the language and during the course of his stay there, he had picked up many Japanese activities. One of which was the art of maintaining a Japanese Garden.

One day, he organized a small party at home to celebrate the birth of his first grandson and all of his colleagues and their families were invited. That was when I happened to visit his home. And I fell in love with his miniature Japanese garden the moment I saw it. Of course, at the time, I had no idea that it was a Japanese garden or even an oriental garden of any sort. All I knew was that it was extremely neat, clean and seemingly so delicate. I was almost scared to walk along the stones as I felt that my footsteps would disturb the tranquility.

My host must have seen the look of awe in my eyes, for he came beside me to stand and patiently explain what the whole tranquil thing was. He told me that it was a Japanese Garden and that there were certain things that defined a Japanese Garden. He pointed out his lovely bonsai specimens to me, taking the time to explain the unique features of each one. He also told me about the Koi fish in the pond and explained that although they were Chinese, they added the element of prosperity to his Japanese garden.

In fact, I would not be wrong to say that in a matter of two hours, he converted me from someone who had never even heard of a Japanese Garden into someone totally in awe of the beauty, simplicity and meaning of the art of a Japanese garden. Today, I have my own Japanese garden. And I have only the patient old master to thank for this indulgence.