I wrote this essay for Environmental Education and my teacher liked it so much, she gave a copy to be printed in my school's magazine.

There, the garden lives on. On a site, which was considered barren, it thrives as though it grows on the fertile plains of the Ganges and is loved by all who have visited it.
Before the garden was grown on it, the land was considered to be barren. The yellow, bald, dry spot was lined with chicken wire to prevent people from entering it. My apartment was right next to it, and, in the concrete jungle known as Mumbai, it was one of the few open spots found. Builders, who wanted to build on it failed to acquire it because the owner of the land, an old soldier whose name was Corporal Adrian Shepard, didn’t want to sell it. Now, from what you’ve read above, I know what you must be thinking about Corporal Shepard – A crabby old man who would shout at anything which approached him or touched his property and chased those ‘nasty little kids’ away with his walking stick. But, my dear reader, I’m sorry to say that you’re wrong. Corporal Adrian Shepard was and still is a really good friend of mine and the only reason why he had lined his land with chicken wire, not let anybody touch it and had not sold it was because it was in a shed on this land that he met the love of his life and he swore to himself that as long as he lived, he wouldn’t let go of that land. I’d often ask him why he didn’t make use of the land but he’d just tell me that he was too old to work on it and that he wouldn’t sell it. I’d often told him that we could grow a garden on that land, leaving the shed untouched of course. He liked the idea but we just didn’t have the funds to undertake it. Another thing was that Corporal Shepard believed that his negligence had caused the land to turn barren. It was just our luck when a billionaire industrialist, who did not wish to be named, saw the land and contacted Corporal Shepard. Corporal Shepard would not sell it but he told the industrialist the reason he wouldn’t sell it and also about our idea of turning it into the garden. The industrialist, who was and is always involved in some kind of charity work or another, agreed to be our anonymous benefactor.
Corporal Shepard almost leaped around the room as he told me about this. Now, with a financial backing, we could undertake our idea. As Corporal Shepard was largely interested in Greek Mythology, we decided that the garden’s theme would be Mount Olympus. We started off with lining the land with vermicultured fertile soil, leaving the shed untouched of course. Next, we had leguminous crops planted on this fresh layer of soil to further increase it’s fertility by fixing natural nitrogen fertilizers in it. We let them grow for about half a year after which we sold the crops and started our decoration of the garden. We mapped the land into twelve different areas for the twelve gods of Mount Olympus – Zeus, Poseidon, Athena, Aphrodite, Hermes, Dionysus, Apollo, Hephaestus, Ares, Hera, Demeter and Artemis. We had a concrete bust of each of these Olympians made and placed them in their areas. Each of their areas was made according to what god they were, for example, Dionysus, the god of wine, had grape vines planted in his area and Poseidon, the god of the sea, had quite a fancy fountain in his area. The shed was left untouched but it lay in the area of one specific Olympian – Aphrodite, the goddess of love.
The industrialist visited it after we’d finished creating it and he loved the design and concept and said his money was used extremely well. I guess I might tell you something before I sign off – I spend most of my time at the shed, hoping that one day, like Corporal Adrian Shepard, I meet the love of my life there too.

Varun Pramanik
Adrian Shepard is a character from Half-Life: Opposing Force.