Chhavi Noticed This!

Another post from Kochi – these are the Chinese Fishing Nets, or Cheenavala, so called because, well, the nets come from China. They work on a unique pulley system with rocks and are fixed on the shore. Reminded me of principles demonstrated by da Vinci (when he wasn’t being used to concoct random conspiracy theories about the descendents of Christ.)
This is a throwaway post. I had to share because it’s just as pretty as the picture Meanwhile, up the shore there are men who will cook the fish for you. I thought they were actually trying to come home with me along with the raw fish, I had no idea they were cooking them on the spot!

Spotted on the Jangpura/Def Col flyover … a pigeon tree. When we went by the first time, someone had put feed out for them, they were everywhere. It really was Hitchcockian. On the way back, they’d settled down some — and we took this photo from the right side of the road

I recently celebrated a birthday — and had myself a party. And got more flowers than I knew what to do with. Every single vase in the house was in use. Finally, I resorted to breaking up the bouquets and chucking the baby’s breath and other fillers to fit the actual flowers into smaller vases. I squeezed the remainders into a pen stand, wine bottles, and even a breezer bottle.
Fresh flowers — I think I’m addicted. Just looking around my digs makes me happy. Six days later, the place still smells great! And the corridor outside looks stunning, if I do say so myself So I had to document it with my camera phone and share my handiwork! Pause a minute. Take a deep breath. Maybe you’ll be able to smell the roses…
(The rest of the flowers have been photographed on my Olympus and, therefore, don’t belong on the blog.)

Towards the end of October and then through December, there’s a totally heady scent that cuts through the gritty grime, the fumes, and the general smell of something burning, here on the streets of Delhi. There’s a huge tree right outside my house, in fact. And though it’s done blooming, there are plenty in the neighborhood under which I pause just to inhale the scent. Late one night, a friend and I were going to coffee in Defence Colony. We parked under one of these near the gumbad, and asked one of the parking attendants the name of the tree. He did tell us what it was called but the next day neither of us could recall what he’d said.
But, then I asked my handy dandy walking-talking Encyclopedia-Botanica (my mother) and I hadn’t even gotten to describing the sheflara-like leaves when she pronounced I was drunk on Alstonia Scholaris. She said it’s the only thing she misses about Delhi.

Taken at my office, this madhumalti bush in bloom made me smile for weeks