Who Took My Hibiscus?!

 I feel blessed to stay in a colony where greenery reigns supreme. Trees line up on both sides of every lane. The road that is the entrance to our colony has a divider made up of beautiful Bougain-vilea plants.   It is sheer delight to see the flowers that initially blossom in pink and gradually turn into white. Morning walks become a sensory experience, what with the greenery of trees, the aroma and hues of various flowers around and the excited chirping of various species of birds.

Flowers are in abundance too. Along with colourful Bougain-vilea, we have funnel-shaped flowers in hues of violet and white lining up the shrubs or sometimes weeds at the corner of the road. Cactus too blossoms in bright shades of yellow and orange.Almost every building in my colony has a mini nursery of beautiful plants at the entrance. Likewise, my building too boasts of a pretty mini garden. Hibiscus, cactus, the beautiful shankpushpi, also known as Aparajita and orange coloured star-cluster flowers prettily adorn the entrance. My father-in-law would pluck these flowers every morning and arrange them beautifully in a plate, to be offered everyday to the deities in our house-temple. He was very fond of flowers and even managed to create a small beautiful garden inside our home, with shankpushpi plants, rose shrubs and two creepers. Till he lived, he went down to the entrance of our building and brought in the flowers with great flourish. The more the flowers he got, the happier he would be. 

He passed away on 15th of September. We noticed that the shankpushpi in our house stopped yielding flowers from the day he died! Only after all his last rites and rituals of 13 days were completed, did the plant start blossoming again. 

In my father-in-law's absence, I started bringing in the flowers from the entrance. The ritual of plucking flowers is immensely soothing! I could relate to my father-in-law's happiness whenever I found lot of flowers on any particular day. The hibiscus gradually turned into a favourite and not a day went by, in the past few months, when we didn't get one. 

Yesterday, while plucking some flowers, I saw a lot of hibiscus buds, all waiting to bloom. It made me happy that the next day, I would get a good haul of the beautiful red flowers. Today, as I left for my usual morning walk, I happened to glance at the hibiscus tree, hoping to see it in full bloom. To my shock, I saw just a single red flower! Someone had plucked the others.  

Who took my hibiscus??  I couldn't help pondering over this question as I took a quick walk in my colony.  It was not a relaxed walk, it was a walk filled with disappointment in having lost the flowers, and a grudge against the one who took them. My flowers! How could someone take them away!?  

"Someone had already plucked the flowers. I got only one today!  There were so many buds yesterday." I lamented after reaching home. I kept complaining until my husband asked calmly. "Did you plant the hibiscus?"

And it suddenly became clear to me. The hibiscus was actually planted by a family who used to stay in our building but shifted to their native place after the lock down was announced. The lady of this family used to pluck the flowers every day, and in her absence, seeing the flowers fading away unused, my father-in-law started bringing them home. He always used to say - "Enjoy these flowers until the family returns. Once they return, we shouldn't pluck them." My father-in-law knew very well that the flowers weren't ours, but it took today's incident to remind me of this!

And finally I could let go of the resentment towards the person who took the flowers.I learnt an important lesson today. That 'Mine!' is the root-cause of most of the disruptions that arise in our mind. When we realise that we, like everyone, are on borrowed time, and borrowered property, then what is the point of conflict!?

Tomorrow, if I don't find any hibiscus, I would smile and keep walking, knowing that somewhere the flowers are being used for a better purpose, by someone more deserving of them!

My Kitchen, The Wonderland!

Indeed it is a wonderland. 

Kitchen is the place where most of my blogs form as blueprints in my mind. I develop scenes, find comedy in daily affairs,  derive logic from situations and by the time I leave the kitchen, another blog is ready to be penned down. 

The kitchen is also my lab for cooking experiments. Over the years I gradually developed a love for cooking. But I have to add a disclaimer after this statement. Just because I like cooking, it doesn't make me a chef!  I am still learning. Some days I try out new recipes. Some days I make alterations in the tried and tested recipes. At times they turn out fine. Most of the times there is large scope for improvement. What soothes me most is the whole process (who cares about the output, right? Just kidding. Try asking this to someone really hungry. They will disprove this and how!). 

I specially love to bake. The preparation of the batter for cake, the aromas associated (vanilla essence, cocoa powder, banana puree!), the aroma wafting from the cooker (I used to bake in the oven too. This deserves a special paragraph. Coming ahead!), the output - all these have turned baking into an excellent exercise for mindfulness. It relaxes my mind, improves my mood and refreshes me! 

About the promised oven - right. I baked cakes in the oven too. But I don't know where I am going wrong (the temperature setting? the ratio of ingredients? mixing? Oh my God, there are so many things I can do wrong and yet I dare ask 'Where I am going wrong??') the crust of the cake always crumbles when I bake it in the oven. It turns out fine in the cooker. Nevertheless I credit the oven with my love for baking. It supported me in my first attempts at baking and is one of my favourites from the kitchen. 

I am yet to develop a good rapport with Yeast. It dislikes me. Refuses to activate. Doesn't help the dough to rise. Doesn't cooperate with me in my attempts to bake bread or pizza. I need to spend some more quality time with it to improve our relationship. 

Eventually and gradually, the kitchen turned into a bird sanctuary too. Let me tell you how this blessed event came to happen. 

We South-Indians have a tradition of offering food to birds before we eat ourselves. So every day we would keep some cooked rice at the window sill in the kitchen. This captured the attention of some pigeons passing through. A couple of them came down to eat, and there has been no looking back since then.

The pigeons - they deserve a special mention. They have colonised Hyderabad. The ancestral homes and ruins that one may find here have also become the ancestral resting zones of these birds. Complexes, individual houses, flats, new/old - the pigeons treat every home equally. They are impartial when it comes to homes. 

The pigeon-couple who first spotted the rice, slowly brought in their friends and relatives too. But not all are welcome. There is one hefty pigeon - I have named it Hefty, for obvious reasons. It scares and bullies the other pigeons into flying away. It has a faithful and loyal side-kick too, which waits patiently for permission to partake the rice. Hefty nibs at the rice greedily while poor Side-kick sits beside it. When Hefty's gaze falls on the Side-kick, it tosses some morsels of rice towards the other, who gratefully nibs at them. 

And then one day Hefty met its match. A couple of sparrows came flying through, seeing the rice morsels. They happily partook of the rice and started coming every day, like the pigeons. But not in their presence. Just once, it so happened that Hefty came in while one chirpy was happily nibbling at a rice morsel behind the window. This scene was amazing. Have you ever seen a sparrow sit still? I did. I saw Chirpy stay very still behind the window while Hefty walked from one end to another to scare away a couple of pigeons that were sitting on the opposite window. Whenever Hefty's back was turned towards Chirpy, I saw the later quickly grab hold of a morsel and stand still, not visible to the angry Hefty. This went on for a while till Hefty, assured that none of the other pigeons would approach its area, flew away. Chirpy happily hopped from the window, satisfied itself with some more rice morsels and went away. The pair of sparrows still comes, always in the absence of Hefty. It is a pleasure to see these little active chirpies. 

And that day a beautiful bird came to the window, black-coloured, with a dash of orange and a sharp-looking beak. I watched it in amazement, trying to find out its breed. My kid too walked into the kitchen and looked at the bird. 'Wood-pecker!' he whispered. I am not very sure, but the sharp beak did give some pecking-like vibes. The bird nibbled on some grains and flew away. It came once again after that day. I haven't seen it thereafter. I hope it comes. 

The kitchen is also the place where the play of clouds and light goes on continously. At 11 in the morning, bright sunlight comes in through the window, and I switch off the artificial lights in the kitchen. Half an hour later, a passing-by gray cloud moves in the sky and covers the light. I sigh and switch on the light. Five minutes later, the sun shines brightly again and I switch off the light. Another cloud comes. This goes on till I have my lunch. I am used to this play of light. I look forward to it.

The kitchen is a place of chaos, and also an oasis of calm and peace for me. It is a place where I learn, and also the place which tests me about whatever I learnt! 

Indeed, a wonderland, in all ways!  

Dreams from the past

I started blogging in 2008. I created a blog-site of my own and started jotting down my thoughts.

Today, I was going through some of the blogs that I had started with. And I came across one titled - Things I Want To Do Before I Grow Old. 

I had almost forgotten about this blog, about the list of To-Do things that I had made. But what lifted my spirits is, unconsciously and without thinking about this list, I did do some of the things that I wanted to!

Well, there are some things pending. And some things that cannot be done now, I think. 

The list goes something like this:

1. Write a book. - I did! I wrote three books. And while they definitely won't come under 'Bestsellers', the satisfaction and happiness that came with publishing these books remains in the heart to this date. The first one was clearly an amateurish attempt but it gave me confidence to go ahead and paved the way for others. So, this is one task that I managed to do!

2. Visit the Himalayas. - Well, I almost did. Almost, because I went to Shimla and Manali, and saw the Himalayan Mountain Range from a distance. As good as going there, isn't it? Nah. Whom am I kidding?! A visit to the Himalayas will be something ethereal and mystical. I am immensely grateful that I could see the magnificent mountains and feel their magic. May be someday I will get to visit them from near. But until then, excuse me if I mark this task as 'Almost Achieved'!

3. Sit beside the pilot in the cockpit and watch the plane move through the clouds. - Sorry. This is something that I don't think I will be able to ever do. For starters, I don't have the required connections to be able to sit in the cockpit of the plane. Secondly, the last plane journey that I went through, put me off planes, like forever. The turbulence was unbearable and triggered a panic attack in me. I have never been this scared ever before! And I haven't set foot inside a plane again. I don't intend to. Which makes the 4th task really difficult to achieve.

4. Visit at least one foreign country. - Right. But how? Unless I can travel by road/rail? How many days would it take to reach the country? Will I have to sell my house to cover the expense? What will I return to, from the trip, if, in a perverse state of mind, I indeed sell my house? Nope. This task will now go under the list of Things I Better Forget About. 

5. Read as much as possible and learn as well! - Ah! My favourite! This is something that I am still doing. Am I reading? Am I! I read till everyone gets a headache just looking at me. And when I read about philosophy or spirituality or religion, I note down memorable points in my giant book that I have specially reserved for this. So I am learning too! Reading as well as learning. Because I can't survive without either of these. Because books are my lifeline, my escape from life, my coping mechanism to deal with the blows of life. 

6. Go on a cruise. - Pending. But someday I hope too. Water has always fascinated and terrified me. I am awed by its sheer power. Someday I would like to stand on a cruiser and watch a sunset. With dolphins playing around. And the sound of waves. And the cruiser slicing through the waters. Can't wait to do this!

7. Earn a five-digit salary. - Now, why I would write this one? Ah, I remember. I was working on a contract basis and was earning a four-digit figure. Eventually I did earn in five digits. It wasn't much, but it helped a lot. The main question is - did it make me happy? The answer, sadly, is No. Because it wasn't something I wanted to do. I did learn a lot. And I am grateful for the life-lessons learnt during that period of time.

I have always believed in focusing on the things that I am grateful for. And today, after reading my old blog, my gratitude-list has increased manifold. 

Dear Life, the only thing that I really ask of you now, is to constantly remind me to be grateful always. For where I am now. And for everything you have given me!