The Farm Diaries: Part 2: Uninvited guests

These days the cosy nursery at 'The Farm' is secretly catering to some uninvited guests.....

Today I went to do some much pending clean up in the nursery for giving my veggie saplings bit of a space to grow and set fruit. So, there I was walking along the baskets plucking out the unwanted grass, amaranth and what not when I came across some fascinating mushrooms.

Little umbrella shaped white fruiting bodies with red spots, they are still as mysterious to me as when I was a little kid splashing across the little puddles in monsoon. Then I found some more cute brown coloured ones gossiping with the tomato saplings and I just couldn't find it in my heart to separate them from the little veggie saplings.

All this brought back a fairytale memory before my world became a Botanical world when mushrooms were some mysterious little umbrellas grown by mother nature for the tiny frogs hopping all over during the monsoon!!

That was not the only reason I let those magical mushrooms stay where they grew. One very fascinating fact about mushrooms is that they are more than just the umbrella shaped fruiting bodies we see above. Most vital part of the mushrooms, the mycelium is a cluster of hyphae(long thread like structures) which form an extensive network underground in unison with the plant roots nearby. This network increases the surface area of absorption for the plants. Also the fungi feeds on the organic matter in soil and converts it into some useful nutrients for the plants. The result...tomatoes and other veggies will grow healthier and faster!! So you see the cute looking little umbrellas although uninvited are very precious guests for any garden!!!

...Little Umbrellas...

...White fruiting bodies with red spots...

...Hidden depths...

...Mushrooms gossipping with the tomato sapling...

Happiness is.....

......opening a Flipkart packet and finding the book you have been craving to own for years!!!

It's the one book which I always wanted as a gift...

It's the one book for which I dropped a thousand hints before my birthday every year....

It's the one book which I borrowed a hundred times but never owned....

It's the one book which feels like home...

It's the one book which was made just for me...

It's the one book I scoured the whole Sunday book market regularly for months...

It's the one book which I didn't wanna buy myself cause I have always wanted to start this with a story!!! 

P.S. Thanks mum!!! Although it took me a thousand hints, hundred borrowing trips and 4years, finally I own it!! And it was worth waiting for!!!

Something's are worth waiting for!!!

The Farm Diaries: Part 1: A Forgotten Fantasy

After one crazy day of planting baskets of seeds in the hope of seeing some tasty and fresh lettuces, cabbages, palak and tomatoes in winters I got  bored😪.  But since I was on 'The Farm' it never let's me stay bored for a long time. I trekked up and down the whole length of it asking for some respite from the dull uninspiring day and there it was on the other end of the lane, waiting for me a pot full of Bryophyllum😍

Psst....don't tell anybody but 'The Farm' has a secret power of teleporting you to the past!!  And in that moment I got teleported to a science class of my 10th grade!! There I was, a greedy child sitting on the front desk, eager to learn everything about the plants and there my teacher was standing near her desk so calmly telling us about a miracle leaf. She told us that this leaf could give birth to whole new plants and not one but many!!! I still remember that moment after that fact I didn't hear anything else. For the whole class and further days to come my train of thought was stuck on that leaf.

I wanted to find that leaf and see for myself that miracle which my science teacher so nonchalantly mentioned as a method of vegetative propagation!! But unfortunately my childhood desire of finding that leaf remained unfulfilled for a long time and slowly it got buried deep down under layers and layers of other childhood fantasies and desires. Until 'The Farm' brought it back up again!!

Now that's the reason I plucked a mature healthy leaf from the gorgeous Bryophyllum plant (I took permission from the plant first: that's the rule of 'The Farm') and plonked it in a secure corner with lots of soil, regular water supply, a dash of sunlight and a kiss just for a dose of magic 😋

For a month I let my kiss work its magic. For a month I resisted disturbing it. I only peeked at it twice a day😋 and touched it just three times in the whole month!! Soon from the nodes on the leaf's  boundary out came pretty little roots, then two leaves small and green which stopped my breath. Now after almost a month and a half the two tiny leaves have grown and gotten more companions and the delicate hairy roots have formed a bunch. I separated them from their mother leaf and put it in small pots. Now the little darlings are becoming independent and I'm their proud mother! 😋

My science teacher called it an experiment and the gardener called it vegetative propagation. For me it was a miracle!!! And the miracle which I made it happen!!

...Bryophyllum pinnatum: The Miracle Leaf...

...Magic of my kiss ;)....

...New plants growing from the nodes of leaf...

Tulipomania: Going mad over Tulips

17th Century Holland!! Now that was the time and place to be. It was the Golden era when the Dutch were rejoicing in peace and Holland was gaining popularity all over the world for its beautiful art, innovative scientific research and growing cultured society. Amid this cacophony of all around success a strikingly beautiful flower saturated with intense colours sneaked into Holland. It's path was traced from Turkey to Amsterdam via Vienna. Sometimes as a royal gift, sometimes a stolen bulb the Tulip somehow entered Holland and established it's presence there like no other flower.

In the Golden age it became the status symbol of prosperity for wealthy tradesmen and thus people started planting acres and acres of Tulip bulbs to trade and as a display of their richness.

These Tulips with intense single colour petals were already a hype but suddenly the tulip market saw a curious mix of flowers with variegated petals. These flowers were exotic looking with a fascinating mix of colours where the monotonous single colour was broken by a vivid streak of contrasting colours. 

Sometimes the red had a single streak of striking yellow coursing through, sometimes the pink had lines of white coursing all over the petals and sometimes the colours were so mixed up that one streak seems to be giving rise to another.

These novel looking tulips were formed because of a viral infection. Imagine that, becoming more beautiful on getting infected by a virus!! I usually get a runny nose and dull skin!!! This virus called 'Tulip Mosaic Virus' broke the monotone into 2 or more colours thus giving an exotic looking variegated variety. These 'broken' tulips held such fascination that each bulb was traded for hundreds of gold bullions. They were really hard to come by also, in a monotone field of single toned flowers one or two flowers whose bulbs got infected used to break. Such rarity and such exotic colours made them stand out from the rest.

This viral infection although made the tulip stand out and increased its price a thousand fold as more and more people coveted it, it also decreased its inherent strength. The broken tulips were not able to set seeds the only way to replicate these was through the offsets or bulbs. Soon as the century came to an end so did this tulip mania. The variagated varieties so flamboyant and coveted soon disappered as they weakened more and more courtesy of the offsets. And in the end all one us left was the simple, monotonous, field full of healthy tulips!!!

That's the tragedy of human nature where people coveted the one broken tulip for it's exotic nature forgetting it's weakened strength and bet bullions of gold on it...eventually leading to the financial ruin of those misguided humans who saw something special in something so fickle.

...one in a million...

...The Broken Tulip...

The Devil of Delhi

One starts to feel the presence of Devil in Delhi during the mildly chilly months of September and October and in November the presence becomes so strong that you just cannot ignore it!!

As the night creeps in and you happen to be outside a strong syrupy smell blankets you in the chilly night. You look around and there are no flowers but as you keep moving forward the aroma becomes stronger and stronger with each step. Then suddenly, there is a blast of this sweet and heavy scent which clogs your nostrils and blocks all your thoughts until the only thing that's left in your mind is that sweet strong perfume from an unknown source.

Except it's not unkown, in the deep dark corner of your heart you know where the scent is originating from, you know who spreads such a strong perfume under the cloak of night.

And yes you are correct it's that tall tree with whorls of leaves forming a big canopy and each whorl has three to ten leaves. These big dark green leaves camouflage the greenish white bunch of tiny white flowers which although there for whole October, November and December only appear to the eyes which look up into the tree or to the eyes which look down on the ground.

This is the Devil of Delhi....The Devil's Tree or Alstonia scholaris since traditionally the wood was used to make slates for the students!! And Devil's Tree probably because it leaks a very poisonous sap which keeps all the grazing vegetarian animals away.

...Tiny greenish white flowers...

The Devil's Tree

Weedy Adventure

There is something heart touchingly beautiful about the unwanted weeds. May be it's the non-chalant way they grow every where without caring about the symmetry or landscape. Maybe it's the resilience which brings them back again and again and again at the same spot. Maybe it's the wildness, the untamed daring nature. Whatever it is it makes the weeds an endearing subject of photography. Here are a few clicks from my weedy adventure today!!!

Tridax procumbens

Indigofera linnaei

Cyanthillium cinereum

Launaea sarmentosa

...Trying to figure out it's name...

I got duped by a bamboo... :P

Lucky bamboo is not actually a bamboo!! I recently discovered this fact while trying to find out if the lucky bamboo is actually lucky!!

Although I couldn't come to a conclusion about its luckiness but I did make a discovery in the process  that lucky bamboo is in fact a plant belonging to the genus Dracaena (the dragon plant genus)!! In botanical circles it's known as Dracaena braunii. Also, with it's usage in Feng Shui and association with eastern culture it is usually thought to be from China or Belgium when in fact the species is a native of Africa.

Way to go lucky bamboo!! It's a good gifting option with it's cute I can fit anywhere size, I can grow even if you look at me only once in a fortnight attitude and lots of Chi(Positive energy) attracting capacity which supposedly brings good luck, prosperity and happiness to the possessor.

Well if you don't believe in all the Chi and Feng Shui gibberish then buy it, gift it or keep it just because it's a good indoor airpurifier and if you are a plant enthusiast living in a city apartment then this is just the solution for you..

Warning:- Don't get duped by the lucky bamboo!!!

Solitary Moon

Up there in the heavens, 
You lay with all the grace, 
On the blanket so dark and velvety, 
Studded with those precious diamonds, 
Yet you seem so lonely....

There from your throne, 
So high and mighty, 
You look down at me in all your glory, 
Yet you seem so lonely.....

In the strangling darkness, 
You reside,  trying to quell it, 
With your insolent charm, 
Yet you fade away with every passing night....

But I'll be there, 
Every night, 
Looking from down below, 
To above and beyond, 
Where you live so regally, 
Yet so lonely, 
So lonely...

Watch Me....

Watch me as I emerge shyly,
From in between two baby leaves,
A bud formed newly,
I am hiding within me the secret of life.

Watch me as I unfurl my petals,
From a closed bud,
To a flamboyant bloom,
I am becoming a giver of life.

Watch me as I grow,
From a bee haven,
To an old senescent,
Wise withering flower.

Watch me as I ripe,
Into a sugar filled richness,
From an innocent bud,
A pretty flower, to a juicy fruit....

...becoming a giver of life...

Trippy Thoughts!!

Sometimes in the chilly darkness of winter nights when everything goes silent under the heavy blanket of fog, I hear gentle whispers of trees surrounding my house. Hearing those secret whispers in the middle of suffocating night makes me wonder what those secrets are about. I keep thinking whom the trees are whispering to in their secret language which no human could understand....

What if they are talking to each other in their secret language about us? What if in our ignorance we think we are cultivating the plants when in actual fact it's the plants which are feeding us and providing us oxygen just so we can live, grow and eventually die and our dead bodies will rot and decompose in their feet thus providing nutrient rich organic matter to enrich their lives.......

...whispering secrets, no human could understand...

Ped Bano Ped: My ultimate fantasy!!

People mostly do good karma so that they get a better next life or after-life or whatever. I don't know if there are multiple lives, if there are after-lives or if there is a heaven and hell. All I know for sure with hundred percent certainty is that there is life and it's on earth since even before we came into being.

It's the trees, they are the ultimate description of life. They have seen centuries of stories unfold, they have recorded all that information and stored it safely year after year as cambium rings, waiting for us to interpret. All the while never becoming a burden on mother Earth. Such is their existence which could only enrich and never harm the earth or the inhabitant souls of earth.

Hence my fantasy of an after-life where I'll be a tree - an elm or a baobab or a bristlecone pine just as long as I could live peacefully for centuries in the musical silence of a forest I don't mind the species I become.

"To be a tree is to be in touch with Nature nakedly; to be stripped of the disguises that have gathered about the man, and to be thrown back blankly into the narrowest groove of life." Even though living for self a tree somehow manages to sustain lives of others. For a tree there is no other. Everything is connected through an mystical thread we call energy. Everything is one unit, one being. 

Let me be free.... Let me become a tree!! :)

...let me become a tree...

It's that time of the year again!!

No not the time when whole national capital region get's covered in the blanket of smog and one can hardly see the sign posts present few feet away. Nope, not the time when people like me step into trees standing guard on the footpath or get surprised by the low hanging branches only to come out with a banged up head and nose.

It's the time when Ceiba speciosa flowers!! It's the time when the silk floss tree is covered in big pink flowers with creamy center. As the winter progresses with each day the large, beautiful, five-petalled flower blooms from a bud, unfurling petal by petal. As the tree slowly looses it's leaves to the winter draughts the once green sentinel turns into a pink princess wearing a fresh new dress made of pink flowers and nothing else.

I had a rendezvous with this tree for the first time in Garden of Five Senses exactly one year back. There, amid the crowd of thousands of plants one stood out. A silent sentinel, tall and bulky, green and pinky standing guard at the entrance. With it's trunk and branches covered in thick prickles it was a courageous soldier warning against harming the thousand plants waiting to meet us at the end of brick lined path.

I almost saluted it like you do out of respect for a brave soldier. My hands went up but instead of a salute I ended up caressing the pink beauties. I was sure I heard the angry rustle just then, maybe it thought I was gonna pluck the flower. But I remember that saying...'if you like a flower you pluck it, but if you love a flower you water it and let it grow old.'

And unashamedly that tree was my first love!! I saw a hundred trees, a thousand plants but to this day I remember this one tree as it stood there in all it's pink glory although a bit prickly. For days I kept seeing it in my dreams, a tree out of mystical world and interestingly it's called a Kalpvriksha in Hindi. For me it was a tree straight out of fairytales and our meeting was no less than that!!

...pink beauty with creamy center...

...a silent sentinel...

I Planted A Chilbil Today....

There used to be a beautiful forest in Delhi you know. Full of trees like Acacias, Albizia, Amaltas, Rhonjha, Dhak, Khair, Kachnar, Chilbil, Ber, Goolar, Jamun, Arjun and the list goes on. Then the British in a misguided effort to beautify Delhi introduced Prosopis juliflora commonly known as Mexican mesquite or more colloquially Vilayati Kikar. 

This Vilayati kikar like the 'Firangs' who introduced it soon took over Delhi's forest cover. It being a hardy, tolerant species adapted too well to the Delhi conditions. With it's tiny foliage and spiny branches, deep roots and numerous seeds, it propagated too fast, too much and in the process starved the native species of sunlight and water, made the ground cover disappear and the soil all sandy and useless.

It took decades before people woke up to the nightmare and realized the extent of ecological damage that this Firang plant has done. But they did wake up and slowly, steadily started replacing this Vilayati keekar with Delhi natives.

Today I was part of one such initiative where hundreds of Delhites came out early in the morning, braving the blanket of smog suffocating the city, to plant some native tree saplings in a green corner of Delhi called Tilpath Valley. The silent bushy forest was today hearing hopeful laughter and cheerful chatter of people who have come to transform it. I was part of that crowd. The holes were dug, saplings were brought, water cans were all filled up and ready to go.

We trekked along a sandy road to reach into the heart of forest. There, I climbed down a mound of hill and went deeper. As I walked through the forest, my each step covered my boots in layers of dust which would soon become life force for the trees we were gonna plant. As I walked deeper and deeper drop by drop my heart got filled with the hope for a better future with purer stable environment.  And in that deep hidden corner of forest's heart was where I planted a Chilbil today.....

...I planted a Chilbil today...

Youth For Seva: A Serendipitous Journey

Not A Tree Post but totally worth sacrificing one tree story for... ;)

I realised I have a capacity of one blog per day only :P so since today I was trying to capture my volunteer experience with YFS in words I didn't have enough brain power left to write a tree story as well. So I am sharing this one instead...in some ways it's more apt than any other post I could have done today!! Read on!!

"It was Serendipity. Getting in touch with YFS, volunteering with YFS for an event, becoming a permanent fixture in YFS, everything! All of it started on just a whim to attend volunteer orientation session for the National Volunteer Week 2015. What started after that was no less than a roller coaster ride with countless hours spent volunteering in slums, government schools, organizing events and those weekly meetings at Patel Nagar office. What began as a day of volunteering soon took over and before I realised became an integral part my life. YFS silently slipped into my life at the time when I had lost all direction and became an anchor for my lost self for a long time.

Once a wise person told me that man has forgotten to be a human being instead he has become 'human doing'. Doing endless things without feeling, thinking, processing and learning from his actions. This volunteering for the first time in my 20 years on earth as a human finally made me realise what  human being actually means. I came face to face with hundreds of shades which constitute a human persona. From mature, self-confident people to immature ones, from pure pessimists to always smiling optimists, from rich hearts to poor bank accounts, from bungalows to slums I got to see it all and I learnt not to judge.

Being with YFS I have felt the miracles a single smile can bring about. I have seen the magic an effortless act of inclusion, a simple feeling of belongingness can bring. And most important of them all I have understood that everybody wants change but there are only few who can make it happen and this change can come about only one step at a time.

There are endless things that I learnt in the short volunteering period with YFS and there are things which I haven't even assimilated yet. In one year I got so many lessons on each and every aspect of my life, on life as a volunteer and on the reality of living society that it will take me a lifetime to sort, understand and assimilate these lessons.

In the end I just want to say that the past year has been an amazing journey which will forever be etched in my heart and mind. I will forever cherish the time I spent with YFS where for once I saw something beyond my individual self, I believed in something greater than myself and I worked for something without any expectations. For this I want to express my heartfelt gratitude towards Swati ma'am-the strong driving force who inspires at each step, humble Sudhakar Sir and dynamic Pawan Sir, the two pillars of YFS-Delhi and all the enthusiastic volunteers with whom I was fortunate enough to share this enlightening journey."

...a simple smile, a feeling of belongingness and inclusion can do unimaginable miracles...

From Mexico, With Love

In 15th and 16th century starting with Columbus' voyage an interconnecting link was established between the Old World and the New World i.e. the Asia, Africa etc. and the Americas respectively. This facilitated the exchange of flora, fauna, people, culture, food etc. between the two worlds which were geographically isolated till then. This whole phenomenon popularly came to be known as 'The Columbian Exchange'. 

Imagine a world without potatoes, tomatoes or chillis well that's how we would have been living if The Columbian Exchange hadn't brought these exotic veggies to Europe and ultimately to India. But as they say nothing good comes without a price, we got lots of diseases and invasive weeds cluttering up our fertile land.

...a slender vine which is personification of love itself...

This is the story of one such invasive species which made it's way into the hearts of more than a few gardening enthusiasts. The slender climber is personification of love itself. From it's heart shaped leaves to it's chain of tiny baby pink hearts for flowers, it is made with love.

...aptly called the Chain of Love...

Aptly called 'Cadena de Amor' (Chain of Love), Antigonon leptopus was first sent from Mexico during Colombian Exchange. From then till now it has spread and spread, using its delicate tendrils, taking over abandoned structures, covering the barren land as far as one can see, feeding honey bees and capturing the hearts of amateur botanists like me ;)

...it takes over, smothering everything it touches...

Malaysians love to have it in their gardens, in Philippines one can find these chains of love adorning all kinds of bouquets and in India I have only ever seen these growing where no humans tread. Behind abandoned buildings, on forgotten lawns or giving life to dying trees that's where I found this coral vine creeping and crawling, trailing and trawling. It doesn't discriminate, it just takes over smothering everything it touches in its lovely embrace.

...Even the empty buildings and dead trees come alive...

One needs to learn the lesson of love from this tender vine I guess. To be so big that you embrace all of humanity with its warts and all. To be so open and giving that the hungry bees know they will never have to leave with empty stomachs ever again. To be so generous that even the barren land and dead trees come alive!!

The Tree Which Conspired To Meet Me

"Here I was living with the misconception that I choose plants, in fact it's the plants who choose me."

My first weeks in Department of Botany as a Master's student were a mix of high crests of excitement, exhilaration and low troughs of self-doubt and dissatisfaction. The crests were shared with friends and the troughs were dealt through silent walks on the University lanes.

On one such outing when the world was nothing more than a few blurry shapes hanging around in the background, one bright yellow patch of colour brought me crashing back to Earth demanding my undivided attention. The sunny bright patch was a mesmerizing blossom lying arrogantly in my path. The bright sunny yellow petals made me pick it up and I was pleasantly surprised by the dark maroon heart hidden in the centre.

Surprisingly though I couldn't find the tree to which the sunshine belonged. So I looked around for a few minutes and gave up concluding that maybe the wind brought and dropped it in my path. I pressed that bloom for keep sakes in my diary and moved on.

Although I walked away but the pressed flower in my diary was a constant reminder which kept niggling me but not enough to go and search out the source. So I left the status quo unchanged until, a week after once again on my meanderings I encountered this gorgeous bloom. But this time it wasn't lying there on the asphalt instead it dropped yes it dropped regally on my feet and stopped me right there in my tracks! Again!!

This pretty yellow Hibiscus look-alike didn't let me rest until I found it's source. Which by the way was a seemingly innocent looking tree standing serenely on the side of the lane. The blooms were there, hidden high up in the tree camouflaged by the large green leaves. Such was the arrangement that not any wandering human eye could savour it's blooming beauties. For whatever reason I got to know that tree and I saw that the tree which I thought was just another tree was infact a very special tree with it's beauty hidden high above for only worthy eyes to see. Even the canteen owner who has passed by the tree everyday for past 25 years didn't know it had such beautiful flowers until the day he saw that flower in my hand!!!

And that day I realised many seemingly normal people are like that too with their extra-ordinary beauty hidden just below the surface for only worthy eyes to see and explore.

P.S. If anybody is interested that naughty tree is called Hibiscus tiliaceus and I found it near the lane passing by entrance of University of Delhi Dean's office.

Weedy Wildness

Amid the mind boggling cacophony of senseless feelings and non-sensical thoughts sometimes some impetuous actions arise. My blog was one of those actions and this NaBloPoMo Challenge is another such decision prompted by Swati mam's FB post, which I'm sure I am gonna enjoy very much!!

Since serendipitously today is John Keats' birthday. One of the greatest second generation English Romantic poets and my very first inspiration I have got to dedicate this post to him. He was this young man who loved words as much as he loved nature. He understood and dared to explore nature through his own words. For him nature was the ultimate beauty and this beauty was the ultimate joy of his life.

The search for that joy, the aspiration of that engrossing feeling of fulfillment, the anticipation of that pure happiness is what makes me stay awake late into night and contemplate about my encounters with plants that happened earlier in the day.

Today while tending to my emerging saplings of lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and such I came across a cute little plant growing resolutely in the middle of my broccoli saplings, showing off its bright pink tiny flowers arranged in a spike.  Such was the attraction of this weed that while weeding I removed all grass, cyperus and inedible amaranth species but just couldn't harden my heart enough to pull out this little darling.

It was not the beauty of those tiny pink flowers that softened my heart before I could pull it out. It was not that this weed was doing any favour for my broccoli saplings by imperiously growing in between them. It was the audaciousness, the wildness and the fearless way this one single plant dared to grow and thrive in between my basket full of broccoli saplings that attracted me.

This one little plant with its weedy wildness consoles me and gives me hope that there is some place for a wild plant like me in this world too. In this basket full of broccoli saplings I could not only survive but thrive and flower.

Digera muricata (Amaranthaceae)

False Amaranth