13 - YEOOR AND HE

   Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder .....is  a famous proverb.   But it is only partly true.    Beauty is also  an inherent physical asset that is not too common.   As a Mumbaikar,  one gets to admire shop window displays  and that's it.    I prefer to see beauty in more natural objects.

   On a trek through Yeoor,  the pretty yellow lilies blooming along the forest floor of Sanjay Gandhi National Park,  were beautiful.    Their bright yellow hue was in stark contrast to the dead leaves strewn around them.

   When I cross the roads near Metro theatre at Dhobi Talao,  the miniscule, colourful primroses,  are a treat to walk along.   Pink, orange, white, purple primroses,  altogether in little clusters of colour,  among a bed of their slightly rough aromatic bright green foliage.  The Maker must have invented them when He was at leisure to indulge Himself with such intricities.

   Closer to my home,  as I enter the neighbourhood,  pretty clusters of periwinkle greet me with their bright pink plumes.   I walk past looking in their direction and breathing in their slightly  sharp scent.   Such humble flowers and yet so they lend an exotic setting to the cement and stone and tar that surrounds this area.   Their shiny leaves frame the beautiful flora.

   These flowers are quite common in the  Mumbai metro city.    The symmetry and perfection that each little flower displays is very interesting.  And all these humble flowers are of medicinal value too.  So I can say 'beauty with a cause'.

 

12 - .............AND MORE ECSTASY

Shopping for the family's needs is a regular and lonely chore.   Sometimes for vegetables and fruits at the Nana Chowk Bhajigalli,  and other times at the Reliance and Nature's Basket stores at Mahalaxmi.    The pain is that the BEST bus service to my residence  is irregular and taxi drivers seem to purposely ignore you,  if you are in desperate need for one,  with lots of loaded bags etc.    

Today was my first day of school with students, after the summer holidays and I was extra tired.    To add to my sorrows,  the Reliance security misplaced a  cardboard box that I had checked in with them.   When I reached  the bus stop, laden with my bags,  the seating was occupied by some insensitive rich person's driver and he also had the temerity to block the bus stop with the uber expensive vehicle.     Passing taxis were occupied or heading home for Friday prayers.    After almost one hour,  I managed to flag down a cab and he decided to take me along Peddar Road.   

At the Cadbury Junction,  I peer to my left,  whenever I'm on my way towards Kemp's corner.   It has become an involuntary gesture through the years that I have lived in south Mumbai.    No,  you are mistaken if you assume that I am trying to catch a glimpse of the designer clothes' shops.   I am paying my obeisance to the nightingale of India.   The talented and famous Lata Mangeshkar,  who lives at an iconic building at this junction.  

Today,  the sight was an exotic one.   God had decorated her residence around the walls with the prettiest white bougainvillea,  (I think),  in full bloom.    The sight is such a pretty picture that all my woes were forgotten and I felt a sudden peace. 

I would not have agreed readily with anyone,  if they had said that flowers can change one's mood,  because I abhor being gifted flowers that wither and die within a few hours.   But the pure white flowers blooming over Lata Mangeshkar's compound wall,   seem to be a heavenly cloud or halo that is extremely aesthetic to look at.   I  wish that I could 'stand and stare'  to my heart's content. 

Anyway,  the pretty image is embedded into my memory.