Mango opulence in India.........

Mango...its botanical name Mangifera indica indicates its origin in India.........
A variety of delicious varieties thrive here...
This bunch was hanging from a giant tree in a neighbor's yard...

And this one in another neighbors's....laden with zillions of ripe mangoes....a parrot was feeding...
Soon monsoon arrived...accompanying wind and heavy rain dropped most of them....

A domestic help collected the scattered fruits in a wicker basket and brought to our place...
What a sensory delight they were!!
For a moment I forgot the summer drudgery...

Passion flower in our yard.........

Passionflower (Passiflora incarnata) is a woody liana.......the purple blooms are stunning...
The fruits of some  species are regarded as delicious exotic fruit.......
These blooms gracing our yard attracts a variety of butterflies...

A feral cat loves taking nap on the roof beside this leafy vine...

Bamboo in our backyard...

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...

Bitter melon flower..........

Bitter melon (Momordica charantia) flower..

The fruit and leaves are vegetable......

In folk medicine, the leaf juice is used as vermifuge...

My family and relatives.......sister...

My elder sister..a physics postgraduate...and a science and mathematics teacher..
On her way to her workplace...clad in her uniform saree..
The white apron is to protect herself from the intense sun...

also the scarf to cover the face...

I think, its the right way to avoid sunburn and stroke...rather than applying those endocrine-disrupting, carcinogen-laden sunscreens....

I wish more and more people knew how dangerous those toiletries like perfume, deoderant and sunscreen are...

Asian pied starling in our backyard, Odisha..

Pied myna or Asian pied starling (Gracupica contra) is a common bird seen in the backyard of our house in Odisha ..

In beechwood, bamboo, hogplum...everywhere...

With big nests...far above the trunk.....for the feral cat tends to raid them, for the eggs and fledglings..

These mynah are different from the common mynah......

Howrah bridge, Kolkata.....

Howrah bridge....from the Howrah railway station.........