My latest visit to Aanandi was on 31st July. Ashish, Smita, Amu and I were in the garden that day.
First we planted the two trees Smita had brought. One was kadamb. It grows to be a tall tree and so we planted it in the long patch which we intend to convert into a wooded patch. As a part of her work with the Ecological Society, Smita is studying forest foods and their viability in urban farming. As a part of that experiment, she had brought a forest vegetable called khuDa which we planted. Its flowers are used to make a vegetable preparation and Smita reports that it tastes nice. Apart from this we did not have much to do besides survey the plots where we have planted vegetables, remove the Ashok seeds, wander around to check in there were any guavas, pomegranates and lemons. So, the methi in one plot has totally died due to incessant rains in that week and so has the coriander. Some coriander and methi continue to fight back in two other plots. The palak seems to be plodding along better than the other two. The shepu too is shyly coming up. The sturdiest of the lot is the ambadi. It is growing back and will perhaps be ready to be plucked this Saturday. The pomegranates need to be picked and thrown away and the tree needs to be pruned heavily. We shall do it once the rains let up a little. The guavas and lemons are small yet and it will be a couple of weeks before we can pick them.
As we completed this whole survey, Mama came from Mumbai with Mami and Manavendra as planned. Then we showed him around and explained our future plans for the garden to him. As we were going around, when we were at the sitaphal (custard-apple) plant (can’t call it a tree yet…its only 5.5 feet in height!) when Smita said, “Just have look…maybe the plant has some fruit”. Excitedly I looked and sure enough, there were at least 10-15 tiny sitaphal fruits on the plant ! We were all so thrilled :)
On Sunday I decided to sleep in after ages. The next weekend i.e. 7th and 8th August I couldn’t go since I had a theatre workshop. On Sunday afternoon Mami called to report that on Saturday the kadunimba tree right in the entrance collapsed on its own. It blocked the entrance. Luckily Yuvraj, the head of the painters currently working inside the house upstairs, was present there at the time. He first took photographs (that will serve to prove that the tree fell on its own) and then coordinated with the PMC people to come and take it away and clear up the tree-debris. It took the whole of that day and considerable ‘chai-paani’ for the PMC people, but it was all done. I was so saddened to hear about all this :( I reported it to the Aanandi team and the overall morale quickly plummeted. As I reported it to Pradeep, he explained that in the rains, due to the water, the weight of the tree increases three-fold. Since the kadunimba tree was heavily leaning on one side, the accumulated weight caused the tree to fall. As it is the garden has suffered from neglect for so long that some such mishaps are expected. The explanation satisfies my intellect but not the heart. Oh well !
Yet, there is one good thing that might come out of this. Yuvraj spoke to the PMC people about trimming the Ashok trees and pruning other trees that have grown in all odd directions and they have assured that as soon as we give them a letter, they will immediately get the job done. We have drafted a letter and I shall hand it to Yuvraj to follow it through.
In other plant related news, my petit jardin in my balcony (all of 3 by 5 feet !) celebrated the rains with lovely flowers. There were (and still are) four to five blossoms of blue and purple coloured blooms on the Hydrangea plant and some Lilies. The best of all is the Brahmakamal flower. A friend in office looked at the photographs and said that this is the Parnakamal and the Brahmakamal blooms only in the Himalayas at heights greater than 15000 feet. Nevertheless, “a rose by any other name…”… So, this flower is special because it blooms only in the monsoon. It starts blooming by 11:00 p.m. It is in full bloom at midnight and withers away till sunrise. The petals are so delicate and translucent and it has a very mild and sweet, heady fragrance. In my garden the Brahamakal plant is in a really small pot but it has grown so well ! Some of its long leaves are hanging out of the balcony. It had eight buds and four flowers bloomed on one night and the remaining four on the next night. Even today it has three more buds :)
I leave you with flowers from my garden :)
Lilies
Hydrangea
Brahmakamal
And the one hanging out of the balcony !
