This is my child. I planted it. I saw it grow. I loved it. Don't cut it down.
Interpretation
The speaker expresses deep affection and attachment to something they nurtured and developed, pleading for its preservation.
In this quote, R.K. Narayan conveys a profound sense of connection and love towards something that has been cared for and cultivated over time. The imagery of planting and watching it grow symbolizes a nurturing relationship, whether it be with a loved one, a project, or a dream. The plea to 'not cut it down' highlights the vulnerability of what one has cherished and the emotional pain that comes with loss.
In practice
During a speech about community gardening, one might say this quote to emphasize the importance of nurturing the environment.
We come together only to go apart again. The law of life can't be avoided. The law comes into operation the moment we detach ourselves from our mother's womb. All struggle & misery in life is due to our attempt to arrest this law or get away from it or in allowing ourselves to be hurt by it. The fact must be recognized. A profound unmitigated loneliness is the only truth of life. All else is false. The law of life. No sense in battling against it.
Everything terrible is something that needs our love.
Everyone is welcome in drag. Everyone is important and valuable.
Love is the world's infinite mutability; lies, hatred, murder even, are all knit up in it; it is the inevitable blossoming of its opposites, a magnificent rose smelling faintly of blood.
The hardest times to choose love become the very times that you can most grow spiritually.
Sometimes I have the strangest feeling about you. Especially when you are near me as you are now. It feels as though I had a string tied here under my left rib where my heart is, tightly knotted to you in a similar fashion. And when you go to Ireland, with all that distance between us, I am afraid that this cord will be snapped, and I shall bleed inwardly.
She wore an ivory-white dress and held the world in her eyes. I barely remember the priest's words or the faces of the guests, full of hope, who filled the church on that March morning. All that remains in my memory is the touch of her lips and, when I half opened my eyes, the secret oath I carried with me and would remember all the days of my life.
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