#8 - Myself & Nature | Part 2 | A Memoir

(In this blog, I have added the links of most of the plants & animals discussed for your reference. Kindly see them for a better visual & reading experience.)

It was all about Fauna in the previous blog. Now in this blog, let us explore more about my thoughts & interactions with the Flora in & around my home in Madurai. I know a few of these blogs may feel like I am romanticizing things to some extent, but it's okay. Because this is how I exactly feel. And, In my humble opinion Trees, Plants & all the greenery constitute “Nature”. We all have been surrounded with so many trees all these years of our lives, but hardly we know the names of the majority of the trees. But here is a writer in Tamil Literature named “Sa.Kandasamy” who has mentioned more than 50 names of plants & trees in a single novel named “Saayavanam”. But I somehow manage to know a few names of the trees in my surroundings.

The first tree that came to my mind from my childhood was the “Gulmohar Tree”. It was planted at the front side of our home. Once in my childhood, we climbed up a small mountain cliff that is present behind our home. And from there I was trying to spot my home, and the only identity of my home was the bright red flowers of this gulmohar tree. It also had long hard “Avarakkai” shaped brown colored seeds. But it was cut down due to the branches touching the power lines that were causing frequent power cuts. Then in our backyard there are 4 coconut trees. And I still remember my mom specially prepared pongal for the “Thennaimaram paalai viduthal”, ie., the coconut tree started to flower for the first time after 5 years of planting. Mostly my mom only waters our backyard garden, I occasionally water them using hose pipes, at that time I used to literally talk with those plants & trees. Like,  there is a coconut tree that was planted by me. I touch it & say “Thanks da thambi, na than unna vachen, nalla valandrukkada, innum nalla valaru” which means “Thanks for growing more bro, it feels proud for me, grow more too”. 

Then the next plant that is grown more is the “Kanagaambaram poochedi”. Actually it was bought from one of my classmate’s homes, as she and many of my school’s girls were having those Kanagambaram flowers on their heads which is saffron in color. The speciality of this plant is that when water sprinkled on the seed containing buds on the plant, it starts to burst and through this dispersal of seed, new plants grow. Speaking of flowers, there was also this tree called “Nandhiyavattai poochedi”, it has white flowers & its leafs & barks produce a white milky like substance. These flowers are mostly offered for God worship, and many pious women in our neighborhood have come to our home to collect a handful of flowers for their worship.

And then there are these Banana trees that are planted near the outlet of the kitchen waste water outlet & bathroom wastewater outlet. It continues to grow one after the another, around the same place after it gives its harvest. And in that damp water ridden place, we can find a lot of “Train Poochi”. It was small in size & we would play with them. Whenever we try to catch them it rolls into a spiral & it smells awful in our hands. The next is the “Manathakkali Keerai chedi”. I like this keerai poriyal very much. It has berries that are being used in dry form in “Pulikulambu/Kaarakulambu”. I have seen Babbler birds eating the berries of these plants. And then there are few Curry Leaves plants, in which cuckoos would always be sitting & eating its fruits. My mom would mostly give me the job of plucking Curry Leaves by saying “Oru innukku parichuttu va” on a busy morning while preparing food for our lunchbox.

Like the first chapter of Ponniyin Selvan Book ie., Aadi Perukku/Aadi pathinettam naal,(18th day of the Tamil Month “Aadi”) few years back we used to buy some seeds from a urakkadai(Chemical fertilizer shop) and would just dig a small hole with a “Kadapparai” tool. Mostly the seeds would be the climber types like avarakkai, poosanikkaai, vellarikkai, peerkangai, pudalangai. Every morning after I woke up, I would water the seed planted area, hoping it would grow. But sadly most of the seeds won't germinate at all because sometimes I would have sowed it too deep. It should have been at the top of the soil. The eagerness to see the seed grow into a plant, that impatience I had was more than a swipe up during a Short/reels doom scroll session. This is the time I realized the quote that came in my English book on the childhood life of “Rabindranath Tagore” ie., “The fault is not in the custard apple tree but with our minds”. Yes, I could totally relate with this. It was me who was in a hurry for the seed to grow quickly, but nature takes its own time. So, the inference from this is don't ever rush, things take time & will happen at a perfect time. Just do your work, leave the rest to Nature.

Now, here comes the tree that I had more memories with, that's the “Lemon Tree”. It had many thorns in it. And during 2003 - 2004 times, it was giving so much lemons like weekly more than hundreds. We would give it to all our neighbors near our homes, friends & family. But still lemons would be available. So, we decided to sell those extra lemons to shops. That time I was the guy who was in charge of buying Aavin milk packets daily morning from the aavin depot, and they also had a small grocery shop and the shopkeepers also knew me, as I was a regular customer. So, I asked the shopkeeper that we have a lemon tree & would like to sell lemons. You could get them at the same or lesser rate than that of what you will get from the market. And that shopkeeper also agreed & I used to go with 20 lemons in baskets every 2 days & if it was all sold, the shopkeeper would tell. Then I would bring it on for some 6 months vaguely I guess. The  price of one lemon they gave us was in the range from 60 paise to 90 paise.They would sell in the range between 1 rupees to 2.5 rupees. From that money they give us for lemons, my mom would give me 2 rupees or 5 rupees out of which I would buy some chocolates or biscuit packets or some other play things like ball, top etc., In that lemon tree, over a certain period of time, there was a huge honeycomb with lots of honeybees. And frequently we can see green vine snakes on the lemon tree more than other trees. Once there was this mom green snake that was literally living in the tree. We won't disturb it, it won't also disturb. Daily it would give birth to a smaller snake & it had 4 offspring. My mom got frightened as she was the one who was in the backyard all day. We also did not have a compound wall during that time, it was only an iron fence. As the place where we are living was an extension area, there are many empty plots filled with bushes and plants that are the shelter for snakes & many reptiles. They planned to hit & kill the snake, that's the first thing everyone who sees the snake would do. And previously 2 green snakes were killed by “Thennamaram paluthu paarpavar” & my Grandpa in our home. There was a myth around green snakes that it would come fly towards us & target our eyes. But actually, Green snakes are non venomous & harmless. I always don't want it to be killed. So, I just shook the tree from different sides thus causing a huge disturbance & ran back into my home, and through the window I saw the mom snake moving very quickly. Yes, the green snakes are so quick in nature. She moved so fast & landed on the ground & started to move out of our home, then following that all the four small snakes also followed their mom & went outside the home. It's still etched in my mind. But now if a snake comes near our home our surrounding people get so aware of not hitting or killing it. We just call the man “Snake Saga”. The man & his team has rescued more than 1000s of snakes, reptiles & birds. Thanks to this man for his selfless service. He is literally balancing the ecosystem & food chain of our area, to a larger extent.

And still there are lot more trees & plants in grown in our backyard all these years like teak tree, papaya tree, guava tree, mango tree, moringa tree, custard apple tree, pomegranate plant, green chilli plant, many keerai varieties, etc., and etc., So, there is still more to tell about my thoughts & experiences of myself with nature. Will continue it as a series of blogs. So, thank you so much & Bye for now.

Peace.☮️

Senthil Rajan V.😇