Woke up in the morning and was fetching flowers for the gods and my late grandmother. Green champa, mogra and my current favourite bakul. I guess Meghana introduced me do these flowers …. fragrant, pungent and heady. As I pick up the flowers I remembered me ridiculing Meghana for what she was doing once. Haunched on her feet, duck walking for more than an hour in the shade of a large bakul tree she had painstakingly gathered these freshly fallen tiny white flowers strewn on the ground. Also this tree was a group of trees which we worshipped as a demi gods (yaksha) guarding our property. Close to it was big abandoned well and the place was notorious for large venomous snakes. The overall setting was a bit intimidating nevertheless extremely fragrant.
Not worth the efforts and the risk I had yelled at her for such tiny flowers however fragrant. I lectured her on being quick efficient and stop wasting precious time like this that too in such a place.
Like a good wife listening to her husband, she didn’t.
She collected all of it in a small kerchiff and then folded it loosely to form a small packet. When we came back home she put it in a small earthen pot with a lid along with some freshly picked all spice leaves. Then she forgot about it and so did I. A few days later she remembered her floral cashe and invited me to open it. I had a rough day and mocked at her. She just insisted that I obey. I opened the lid and poked my nose into the pot. The trapped fragrance of the flowers and the spice leaves was so divine it just transported me back to the place under the bakul tree. This was indeed a divine tree. The witch knew what she was doing. The best was the fragrance remained for many more months. It was pot porri our home made version... simple and casual. Unlike the multi coloured artficially stained versions we get at well ness stores and which worked best only in air conditioned rooms. This was a tropical flower and it grew more fragrant as the day grew hotter.
If I personified bakul it would be a beautiful maiden of the forest .... like Satyavati whose fish stench was turned to a delicious odour after she satisfied the Sage Parashara. Later this same divine fragrance attracted Shantanu and which later in turn formed the opening for The Mahabharata.
What was also appealing apart from its profusion and fragrance was its aesthetics. Its ability to age gracefully. The deep rust coloured hues it picked when it wilted away and merged with the laterite earth. And man it required a lot of concentration to sieve these tiny fresh flowers from the dried ones and the laterite stone gravel. My android savy hands were so trigger happy I realized that I had collected more dry flowers than the freshly fallen white ones. Two hours later I had a hand full of these fragrant flowers. I transferred them to a kerchiff just the way Meghana does. What a pleasure to smell the lingering fragrance on my empty palms as the day went by.
Like a good wife listening to her husband, she didn’t.
She collected all of it in a small kerchiff and then folded it loosely to form a small packet. When we came back home she put it in a small earthen pot with a lid along with some freshly picked all spice leaves. Then she forgot about it and so did I. A few days later she remembered her floral cashe and invited me to open it. I had a rough day and mocked at her. She just insisted that I obey. I opened the lid and poked my nose into the pot. The trapped fragrance of the flowers and the spice leaves was so divine it just transported me back to the place under the bakul tree. This was indeed a divine tree. The witch knew what she was doing. The best was the fragrance remained for many more months. It was pot porri our home made version... simple and casual. Unlike the multi coloured artficially stained versions we get at well ness stores and which worked best only in air conditioned rooms. This was a tropical flower and it grew more fragrant as the day grew hotter.
If I personified bakul it would be a beautiful maiden of the forest .... like Satyavati whose fish stench was turned to a delicious odour after she satisfied the Sage Parashara. Later this same divine fragrance attracted Shantanu and which later in turn formed the opening for The Mahabharata.
What was also appealing apart from its profusion and fragrance was its aesthetics. Its ability to age gracefully. The deep rust coloured hues it picked when it wilted away and merged with the laterite earth. And man it required a lot of concentration to sieve these tiny fresh flowers from the dried ones and the laterite stone gravel. My android savy hands were so trigger happy I realized that I had collected more dry flowers than the freshly fallen white ones. Two hours later I had a hand full of these fragrant flowers. I transferred them to a kerchiff just the way Meghana does. What a pleasure to smell the lingering fragrance on my empty palms as the day went by.
.jpg)
Congratulations! Interesting write-up! Bakul is my favourite tree too, not just for flowers but also for its evergreen form, serenity and coolness. Recently when I wrote my school memoirs for our Golden Reunion, I titled it 'Bakul Phul'.
ReplyDeleteKeep up writing. Best wishes.
Ulhas Rane
Thank you very much for your kind words Sir. What you said is so true about the other aspects of Bakul. I also heard the wood is very good for building ships etc.
ReplyDeleteWhere do i get to read your school memoirs?
best RG
Great to read your blog!All the best.Keep writing!
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot Manisha
Deletehey i remember this tree and it's flowers. when i would return to my home in goa, at the side of an empty plot of land , on the edge of the pond grew this tall tree. as kids i remember my sister and i taking coconut shell and filling them up with these flowers, having fun who could collect more,then we would string them up and drape it on the alter .
ReplyDeleteit was a cool spot at the edge of the pond,it would be fun to sit there and watch buffalos walking down to the pond to be washed or we would just sit in the shade of the tree on summer breaks and try to fish with or home made fishing rods and earthworms as bait.
it was nice reading your blog as it transported me back to those days.
Glad to make you nostalgic.
Deletebest