Travelogue

I am not a frequent traveller, but I would like to share my experiences, both funny and enjoyable. Hope you like the anecdotes.

THE ORPHAN BELLY BUTTON - VADAMALLI FLOWER

It was an exquisite setting, Halebid in its majesty on that evening! The historic temple reflected the creativity and culture of a by gone civilization. The creativity of the Hoysala kings and their ken for culture could be seen from the exquisite stone carvings and their beauty.

The elderly pondered on the glory of our culture, the middle aged looked at the carvings with an eye on their children, the youngsters found it a suitable space to talk to their beloved. From my own family there was a host of visitors: Arun & Eefa, Michael & Liz, Jerry & Sudha, me & Amali, Christy & John! (very unusual to see them both together on a tour, thanks to Eefa's mum!) Priya and Eefa's Mum.

Being 60+1, I was sitting (nay! half reclining) on the grass lawns before the temple. The rest of the relatives had gone on their agenda of exploring the temple and surroundings.

Suddenly my eyes gazed on a smouldering fire at the end of the ground. The ground staff cleared the debris and started to burn them off. I could see them putting green plants into the fire. Curious, I walked towards the fire and saw them putting into fire unwanted plants also. One lovely belly button (Vada Malli) plant caught my eyes.

This plant fascinated my father very much. I can still remember him planting small seedlings and watering them every day. Once the flower buttons started coming up, he used to give the plants a liberal dose of natural fertilizer and lo! within days the plant grew up throwing a virtual feast of dazzling violet flowers. This flower takes a long time to fade, and father collected the faded flowers and dried them to make good seeds.

Now, coming back to Halebid, I saw a half-burnt belly button plant. I took that away one from the fire and carefully plucked a few dried buttons. They will become good seeds, my inner heart told me. I took one bit of newspaper, from which we were eating the locally grown green chickpea, wrapped the seeds and kept them in my pocket. The taste of the fresh chickpeas is still lingering in my tongue!

The trip was over and we returned to our daily duties in the concrete jungle. The seed was forgotten and luckily before throwing the dirty pant into the washing machine, I recovered the small pocket with the seeds.

Early in the morning, I walked into my garden. Can you call a few plants on a terrace, "a garden?" Looking back, my father had a huge garden of 5000 sq ft, I was confined to a tiny garden of say 50 sq.ft! I religiously brought out the orphan seed wrapped in a bit of newspaper, shredded the seeds from the floret and planted them on good patch of pot.

Days passed into weeks, I faithfully watered every day with hope. After 2 weeks, WOW! A small plant, with the typical green shoot emerged from the pot! The Halebid orphan has a new home in our tiny terrace garden with lots of lovely violet belly buttons! Hope you will love him too!