Guests get ‘green’ gift at house-warming ceremony

The house owner being lavished with gifts during house-warming ceremony is the convention followed.

But at Idbadi village in Kedambadi in Puttur taluk, the villagers witnessed an unique practice with the house owner gifting saplings to guests, who had attended the house-warming ceremony.

Chandra Nalike Idbadi, a resident of Idbadi, who is also a ‘Daiva Pathri’ (divine interpreter) gifted saplings to guests attending the house-warming ceremony of his newly built house— ‘Daiva Chita’.

He had come up with the unique idea of distributing saplings to guests in order to make the celebrations not only memorable but also meaningful. He had paid and procured over 300 teak, rose wood, badam, Hebbalasu and other saplings in order to hand it over as gifts to the guests. “There is a need to preserve environment. I hope the guests will nurture the saplings,” he said.

“We build house by spending lakh of rupees. Many trees are also felled during the construction of a house. But none think of planting saplings and help them grow into trees. Chandra’s initiative is appreciable,” the villagers said.

Chandra hopes that his green gift initiative will inspire others and will contribute to increased green cover and eventually helps in checking global warming.