Quan Am Bamboo Cluster - Thai Nguyen Electronic Newspaper

As spring approaches, the weather gradually warms up. Spring rain gently sprinkles tiny droplets of water on the leaves and branches. New buds emerge from the leaf axils, covering the trees in a new jade-green coat. The moist, soft ground is like a sweet sponge cake, and the sprouts split open, eagerly pushing up through the thin layer of soil.

With a few gentle and decisive movements, Ms. Thi had pulled the young bamboo plants out of the pots, placed them on old newspapers, and tied them up neatly with string. Nearly a dozen plump, green bamboo plants on the clean tiled floor without a single speck of soil spilled, would soon be taken away and cared for by other plant lovers.

Mrs. Thi's house is located in a small neighborhood, close to the street, with an area of ​​just over a hundred square meters, always attracting the eyes of passersby because of the myriad of colors of leaves and flowers. Talking about gardening, growing plants and flowers, everyone agrees that Mrs. Thi deserves to be an artist. Rarely does anyone love plants and is meticulous and persistent like her.

Once, the office's "beauty queen" Ngoc Bao was given a bouquet of imported roses by a boyfriend, with strange colors and seductive fragrance, everyone liked it. Everyone said: "U Thi, please try to breed this super beautiful rose." The beautiful Ngoc Bao was always busy and carefree, so a month later she brought back a few withered flower stems, guiltily explaining that she was on vacation at her mother's house and saw the flowers had all withered, so she threw them out on the fence. Yet, less than half a year later, on Bao Ngoc's desk there was a vase of fragrant flowers, even more beautiful than the bouquet she had received that day.

Sitting and chatting together, people in the office often say that Ms. Thi is of the Wood element, so she has a knack for growing plants. Her personality is gentle and simple like an old woman in the countryside. Ms. Thi belongs to the class of specialists with the longest seniority in the office, so the young people call her "Ms. Thi". The office has few people, clear job positions, each person's work has little conflict, everyone respects and loves each other, the atmosphere is always harmonious and warm. The desk work is light, the income in addition to the salary according to the coefficient also has this and that allowance, many outsiders look at it and dream.

Skillfully filling soil around each bamboo root, U Thi was lost in her memories. About forty years ago, also on a drizzly spring day, her father went somewhere to ask for a bamboo root. That year, he was not yet fifty, he said, my grandmother was starting to get sick, our family planted this bamboo clump to make a beautiful cane for her. The old man built a square basin about one meter on each side right under the kitchen window to plant the bamboo.

When first planted, it resembled a green sugarcane, with almost all of its branches and leaves trimmed to reveal a plump, plump trunk, with each segment bulging out, looking very funny and beautiful. Soon, the first leaves spread out, then lush and green. From a plump sugarcane, the bamboo transformed into the shape of Guanyin Bodhisattva with a thousand graceful arms. This is why people call it Guanyin bamboo.

It was not until five years later that the bamboo tree that was intended to be used as a walking stick for Grandma was finally cut down. It was truly a perfect walking stick, each joint as if skillfully carved and polished by a craftsman. Grandma happily showed it off to the elders in the senior club. They all praised the rare and beautiful walking stick and each of them signed up for one.

U Thi inherited her grandfather's talent for gardening. He trained his beloved daughter to be meticulous and persistent. Bamboo is the easiest to grow, it is not picky about soil, does not require care, and is resilient in all weather conditions. But if you just rely on it and ignore it, the plant will get sick and gradually die, and soon the whole clump will wither. The old man whispered that bamboo is a symbol of the uprightness and integrity of a gentleman, of strong will and progress. Our bamboo clump not only helps to cool and beautify but also helps us to always have a peaceful mind, to have a way of thinking and acting appropriate to the situation.

The bamboo pot has been present on the porch of U Thi's house for the past forty years, always green. Bonsai enthusiasts usually choose an odd number of plants, but this bamboo clump always has twelve plants, not counting the bamboo shoots, rounding out the twelve months of the year and full of the twelve zodiac signs, with old plants, young plants, and mature plants. Each stage, each age, the plants have their own appeal, never boring. In a small area, the bamboo clump is not crowded, but only evokes a feeling of safety and protection.

The old man said, young trees are like children, needing protection and care, but even more so needing to be exposed to the sun and wind, so that they can quickly become strong and mature. Like the bamboo pot in our house, if we want to develop, the next generation must be better than the previous generation. To do so, we must take a lot of care and nurturing to achieve success, not just "when the bamboo is old, the bamboo shoots will grow". The old man had many times felt sad and regretful, but he still resolutely cut down the beautiful bamboo tree to make room for the bamboo shoots.

U Thi let out a sigh of relief, the gentle spring breeze blowing was enough to make the bamboo leaves flutter happily. For many days, she had been thinking about the policy of streamlining the staff. Of course, someone with good expertise and many years of dedication to the agency like her could not be considered “redundant”, if anything, it was the young people who were still making many mistakes in their expertise.

Thinking of the young people, she couldn't help but smile, their generation was dynamic, very different from an old woman like her. The young people were careless and careless in their work, but their professional knowledge was admirable. They used specialized software and quickly completed it, then invited each other to buy coffee. When they came back noisily, they saw her still struggling with the handheld computer, they gathered to help and taught her how to use the applications.

Looking at the young people working, I understand that the diligence of my generation is no longer an advantage, technology is completely replacing human labor in many fields. Frankly speaking, besides my work experience, my knowledge has started to become outdated, I find it very difficult to approach new software.

In terms of work efficiency, any of the other guys are “better” than me. Judging from a fair and objective perspective, I see myself as the one who needs to be streamlined the most in the agency. For bamboo to form a forest, bamboo shoots must have a place to grow, must have space to grow, old bamboo must give way to young bamboo is the law of nature. Having thought it through, I decided to submit an application for voluntary early retirement so that the agency can conveniently reorganize the apparatus.

U Thi chose some small bamboo trees that she really liked to plant in mini pots to put on her desk. She would give them to Ngoc Bao and the children as a parting gift before leaving the office.

Source: https://baothainguyen.vn/van-hoa/202503/khom-truc-quan-am-c322418/