Bamboo in our backyard in Sundargarh....
This thicket is almost dead now...
But few years ago, in its peak, it always made a sight to behold....
Hundreds of birds called it home.....mostly mynah and herons........
In the morning and evening, the clamour had to be heard to be believed.......those sounds now evoke nostalgia in me...
Sometimes, in mid-night, they would create a cacophony.........may be because a rat snake climbed up to snatch some eggs...
In windy, blustery days, it created scary , whistling sound..........
And in rain, the feces of the birds, washed to create a fishy smell.......
I would collect cracked, colorful egg shells and feathers below the bush......
I would pluck the fresh leaves to feed our cows........and calves...they loved it...
the woody stalks are used as poles to pluck fruits from our orchard.........mango, papaya, guava.......everything else...
Under the carpet of fallen bamboo leaves, my mother would put root vegetables to sprout.....we grew colocasia there.....
In 25-28 years of living/visiting there, I never saw the plant bloom..........
In 2014 summer, when I had visited India from my current place of South California, saw them abloom..........the grains were like that of wheat........after all, they belong to the same Poaceae family......
Hope, you loved reading the reminisces on this much-useful grass family plant...
