Bahl, the Gardener

Neeraj Bahl, Managing Director and CEO, BSH Home Appliances, has a sprawling balcony garden in his apartment in South Mumbai where he grows a variety of bonsais and decorative plants such as croton, ferns and dieffenbachia. He has eight pots of money plant, which are his favourite. Gardening for Bahl is a stress buster. "It gives me a lot of energy and it is also good to have greenery around you," he says.

Gardening also gives Bahl life lessons. "Recently, four of my ferns were destroyed. However, I realised that there was still life left in them and I nurtured them. Within the next 10 days all the four had leaves in them. This incident gave me a lot of hope during the pandemic. It taught me never to give up even in the worst of times."

Gardening has been a way of life for Bahl right from childhood. He had won seven gardening competitions in school. His dream is to grow a lush green lawn on his terrace and have nothing less than 1,000 potted plants.