Mother's handmade food.........

Everybody loved food prepared by their mother...for its healthy and garnished in love...
I am no exception....
Her fish curry........cilantro-garnished..

Wholesome, healthy, delicious meals...the ubiquitous 'pakhal'...the watered-rice..

As long as I wad fed with her cooked foods, illness hardly came closer to me...
The years of studies out of town, out of country....and the processed food had led to myriad allergies..

Hyderabadi biryani......

For our VISA works, we had been to Hyderabad.....that's when I had taken these pictures...

It was April...and to escape the scorching summer, we were in the cool room most of the times..

Apart from meeting friends over Hyderabadi biryani, we got delivered some to the room as well...
It's delicious....as everybody who have tasted it know..

Remembering Bakula tree......

Bakula tree (Mimusops elengi) ..........a sapotaceae plant family .........

Associated with Hindu mythology......

Those who have seen it must be in awe of its compact, green canopy and wavy leaves...

In my maternal uncle's village in Sundargarh, every household has one of this in front of there houses....must be considered auspicious...

The blooms were fragrant........I can almost inhale them from my current place in California...

Girls made garlands of those tiny blooms...

The ripe fruits which looked like tiny brinjals were said to be edible...I tasted a few, but....just like any other Sapotaceae family member, these fruits were tannin-rich and astringent..

This tree is in the yard of my in-law's place..

Dodder...beware of this plant parasite.......

I spotted this yellow vine on my sister's garden hedge..........
I had no problem in recognizing it.......its a parasite, that strangulates host plants, ultimately killing it...
Even a small piece can grow to a large mat...try to get rid of this parasite as soon as you spot it...

Husband Surya visiting my relatives in Sundargarh......

In our last visit to our families in India...I took these pictures...
My husband Surya...
Visiting a temple in a village in Sundargarh, Odisha...

By the Ib river........

Here he is meeting a stray dog and her two food-hopeful pups in the garden of my sister....yes, he fed them with leftover chapati.....the desperate dog mother was doing everything in her might to make them survive...from stealing my niece's bath robe to the slippers..

It was raining........in more than 5 years, he is wearing a raincoat.......yes, in our place in South California, it almost never rains.........

The story of our house maid...

It's the story of our mad domestic help....She was not always like this..

She was village scheduled caste woman......beautiful..with a husband and two pretty daughters...

In some gory incident, her husband was murdered..

As any loving wife would have felt...she was shocked and had a nervous breakdown...

To ease her misery, people took both of her daughters as nanny..

She worked at multiple houses as maid..and lived in a ramsahckle house.......

Uninvited she started coming to our house....on the pretext of cleaning the cattleshed..

We had 6-10 cattle and their dungs  needed to be removed everyday..

Also, we had a orchard....litter of which needed to be cleared...

Perhaps, th lure of fruits drew to our place...

Aware of her misery, my parents let her work....in exchange of the fallen fruits she collected from the orchard, some cooked foods and money every now and then...

She lived in an utter shabby condition...would eat the guava in her dung-smeared hand....share her one bowl with a stray dog...

It was enigmatic, how she remained healthy...

And a perpetual smile never left her face..

I would marvel at the power of human resilience!

Infant nephew........

My infant nephew....'Sai'...
Playing with our calf..

Bath time....seems he is having fun..

The duo again..

The lemon-biting face..

Visiting a temple..

Anyway...two years have passed since I took these pictures...and he is a school-going tot now...

My temple visits in Odisha...

I am not a religious person...
The way religion has been the reason for bloodshed in recent times,  I am proud for not being one..
Work is my God and all...
However, as a Hindu, in festivities, it is often needed to visit temples..
I go as a tourist....or for the serenity, that every shrines offer, irrespective of their faiths..
Here are some of such pictures...

Curry tree leaves for Indian recipes........

Curry tree (Murraya koenigii), a Rutaceae member is regarded highly for Indian food preparations...
The aromatic leaves are used for curry, rasam, snacks and other delicacies...

This medium-sized tree thrived in our yard in Odisha...also, self-seeded and developed sapling each year.........

In any community feast, people would gather bunches of this fresh sprigs from the plants.......

In California, where I live now....the leaves are available in grocery stores...which is not only expensive, but is stale as well..

In the glory of neem tree..

Neem (Azadirachta indica) is a major tree of India.........and its medicinal value dates back to Ayurvedic Era......

For its medicinal value, it takes a pride of place in most backyards, including ours........

In spring the mild breeze came through its canopy...may be because, spring season  brings many viral infections...and the bitter air is supposed to kill the disease-causing agents...

And the blossoms were used in recipes..

As a kid I would jump in mud puddles and get lesions in the rainy season...that's when my mother would boil some leaves and wash the wounds.....I never needed to take any antibiotics...

This memory makes me emotional, for the love of mothers...

And the plant bore oval fruits...which birds thronged to gorge on...

Now, when I go home..........hear the koels singing hidden in its foliage.......

The orchid Vanda tessellata in India .....

This orchid Vanda tessellata is the only wildly-growing epiphyte I have seen in Odisha, india.....

One of the keystone plant species of central India Madhuca indica often harbors it.........

Though the orchid flowers, I have never seen the blooms...

Learnt them this orchid has medicinal value as well (venom destroying etc.)...for its alkaloid, glucoside, tannins....

As antibiotics are falling ineffective and our drugs arsenal is depleting, potential of this orchid can be investigated....

Remembering our gardens and orchards in Sundargarh.....

I have taken a liking for gardening......though I live in an apartment and have a little patio..

Container garden is my only option.....that suits me fine...

I am a researcher....and gardening is supposed to be my relaxation...

So, how did I developed this passion?...........from my parents and family in Odisha, India...

In our hometown Sundargarh, we had a decent-sized front yard and backyard.......

My father had the wisdom to develop those space into a lush garden, rather than building houses to lease them and earn a few thousands bucks extra......

If I would start mentioning the variety of plants the space had over the years, it will be a lengthy post........

Yet, I  have to, as a respect to the person who gave us so much joys by his decision.......

Mango, papaya, orange, sweet lime, grape fruit, lemon, jujube, date palm, custard apple, litchi, pomegranate, hog-plum, coconut, guava, papaya, grapes, jamun, jackfruit.....also rare fruit plants like rose apple, longan........

It's the hog-plum...

(In the shade of an orange tree...its the day my now-husband, then-boyfriend had come to meet my parents)..
Rose apple....an exotic tree for that climate...

And those fruit plants have multiple varieties too........like seeded, unseeded, sweet, sour etc...

And among vegetables.....pumpkin, bitter gourd, beans, carrot, colocasia, brinjal, amaranth, okra, mint, chilli etc.........some curry leaves tree, moringa, bauhinia, gooseberry tree....

Among flowers, rose, hibiscus, jasmine, night jasmine, plumeria, chenille plant, marigold, cosmos, dahlia, chrysanthemum.....crotons....

(In front of the jasmine...)

Here is a shot of the gorgeous cepals of mussaenda .......blooming in our backyard...

Years of soil erosion, aging of the trees, shadows of the big trees, depleting water level has led to loss of many of these trees....the garden is not in its glory anymore...

Unfortunately, that time was prior to digital camera and phone era....so, not much records are there...

But, the sweet memories are precious...if I start writing it will a novel..I might write one some day..

How can you forget, how people of neighboring villages would come drawn by the spectacular flowers and fruits..... they would ask for raw pomegranates  for diarrhea treatment of their children....community feasts will take bunch of curry leaves...

#Gardening is a pure joy....do plant  a few, if you have got space....more than it time and passion...