‘The Gardener’ is the story of Tammanna, an old man, now employed in a coconut plantation. Though the story is initially narrated by the author, Tammanna himself becomes the narrator later. Tammanna is the protagonist in the story and he tells the story of the rivalry between two farmers Tammanna and Basavaiah. Though Tammanna is one of the characters in the story, the narrator does not disclose his identity till the end. The second narrator tells us that Tammanna was a farmer, had ten acres of land, a comfortable house and people too ready to carry out his orders. Then he tells us about his rival Basavaiah.

We learn from the narrator that Tammanna did not perceive Basavaiah as his rival initially. Tammanna led a normal life and became prosperous gradually and came to possess 1000 acres of land. Until some point whatever Basavaiah did to keep himself on par with Tammanna was seen as healthy competition.

But, one day, Basavaiah asks Tammanna to sell him his two hundred acres of land and Tammanna refuses. Basavaiah takes the land forcibly. Though there were various options available for getting his land back, Tammanna searches for a method that could annihilate Basavaiah completely. Instead of proving might is right or seeking justice from the court of law, Tammanna uses a different strategy. He composes and sings ballads about Basavaiah’s meanness and cruelty. Very soon Tammanna becomes very popular and Basavaiah has no answer to his brainy ideas.

Secondly, Tammanna having found meaningful engagement in ‘art’ forgets Basavaiah’s bad deeds. Just when Basavaiah is contemplating what to do next to spite Tammanna, he comes to know that Tammanna is ill. Basavaiah is pleased with the news. But their rivalry does not end there. Tammanna decides to outbeat him by manipulating the situation itself. He gives up everything and goes away to Chennarayapatna so as to spread the news that Tammanna is dead. Later Basavaiah dies a natural death. When Tammanna comes to know about his death, he becomes reflective. Though there is no cause-effect relationship between the rumour of Tammanna’s death and Basavaiah’s real death, Tammanna is shaken out of his senses.

Until then both Basavaiah and Tammanna indulged in rivalry to satisfy their ego. With the death of Basavaiah, Tammanna loses his identity and he becomes a non-entity. This makes Tammanna reflect over human nature and comes to the conclusion that man needs some issue to fight for or cling on to. In this game, when the loser dies it is natural for the winner to feel guilty. He suffers from a sense of guilt that he was responsible for Basavaiah’s death. Naturally, when Tammanna is accused by his own conscience, he becomes reflective. When one becomes reflective, one tends to review one’s own actions objectively. We do not normally attach emotions to our thinking and then we discover what went wrong and where. Here, both Tammanna and Basavaiah have not done anything ‘bad’ intentionally. They only fought imaginary battles and lived in a dream world of their own.

Man is mortal and all the glory that man believes to enjoy is created by our mind. Man is a dreamer and lives in a dream world of his own. Since man’s life has its own limitations, man’s dream and reality rarely go in unison. When reality overtakes man, the man comes to realize that he is only a puppet in the scheme of things and man is in reality ‘nothing’, but builds up his own image to boost his confidence so that life becomes meaningful as long as he is alive.