Botany Sunday (BH: D11)

August 14, 2011


An exhilarating day of travel and learning! 
But before that I should mention something from yesterday morning. In the newspaper, we found my cousin brother's name in the report about the arrest of a most-wanted thief in the city. That thief (not a politician or a spiritual guru yet) had stolen a few hundred thousand (I will soon start using lakhs and crores) rupees worth of gold and cash from my cousin's house during a day they had traveled to Kochi last month. This was done in broad daylight. Now Kerala police had nabbed the thief. Cousin's wife has been summoned to identify the jewelry. Recently newspapers had reported that thiefs and robbers in the city had their own headquarters set up under an abandoned bridge and were using sms messages to pass each other tips. I guess this robber either refused to join that union or fell out of favor with whoever had been his political godfather. Well, this career is over for him. Hoping to see him soon as a spiritual guru with hundreds of divine grace centers open all over the world.

Loved the spartan, clean KTDC restaurant

On our way to the first wedding invitation this morning, we stopped by at the "Jadayu paara" (Jadayu rock). This is a massive rock formation about 25 miles from the city. It appears to be the shape of a severed bird wing to those who have their imagination primed to see such things. Since a simple rock, even if it is shaped in the most appealing shape, will not attract visitors and finance, a legend was made. Accordingly, this rock is the severed wing of the great Jadayu who tried to prevent abduction of Sita by Ravana in the Ramayana. Ravana cut off this righteous bird's wings. Thousands of years later there is a temple being renovated on top the massive rock. A steady stream of lovers scale its height hoping for a slip-and-rescue routine that will reignite their romance.
Kerala Tourism Development Corporation run a scrupulously clean restaurant there. We had a simple "puttu with pappadam" breakfast with tea. 

Second invitation for the day carried us to a spectacular estate of a grand uncle. Rubber, pineapples, bananas and black pepper grow there in abundance and he has a packed garden of flowers, a lily pond with fish and some vegetables as well. A hobbyist sculptor, he had a sleeping dog statue, complete with collar, lying in front of the house. He acted out some funny stories about drunk friends who treated that stone dog with much reverence and caution. He has made guest appearances in a handful of movies. 

Black pepper in its green form

I enjoyed walking around the estate taking photos. 
When I came back into the house, uncle was busy leafing through a well-thumbed, dog-eared book on home remedies. He said he read in it that drumstick leaves are bad for the body if prepared more than two hours after plucking. He couldn't find the relevant page in the book. I am going to ignore that warning. 

We collected more drumstick (healthier ones) and a deep red ixoria stem for our garden project. Aunty packed some big, juicy limes from the tree outside the house.

When we were about to get into the car, the uncle said his latest chief export to the gulf is, suprisingly, the dried twigs of Loranthus, a type of parasitic mistletoe that is common on mango trees and often considered a bane. It has become the new herbal cure for diabetes. So my cousin (not the robbed one mentioned earlier) who has a bit of blood sugar problem got some packed. The twigs just need to be boiled in water till the color becomes a "light black-tea color". Back at home in the evening, I googled and found a couple of NIH papers discussing experiments with Loranthus extract on the blood sugar levels of lab rats. I will report how the experiment on my cousin goes.

Southern Birdwing, largest butterfly species of south India

For lunch, we landed at my cousin sister's house. She is the one married to the school headmaster, Venu chettan (=elder brother) I had mentioned in an earlier post. Venu chettan said he has made it to the final four in the list of nominees for the best teacher award in the district this year. The announcement will be made on September 5, celebrated as Teacher's Day. I hope he wins it. He gave us a fabulously educational tour of his backyard in less than an hour enumerating amazing facts about the various plants there. 

He lured us in with the question, "Would you like to see the larvae and pupae of south India's largest butterfly?". Of course, we wanted to. The Southern Birdwing butterfly is known as "Garudan shalabham" (eagle butterfly)in Malayalam. He showed us the newly formed red-spotted black pupae and an abandoned pale yellow shell. 
This butterfly lays its eggs only on the creeper Aristolochus Indica. In Malayalam, it is called Garundankoddi. He had planted this creeper three years ago. Finally, the butterflies had found it. Suddenly Amma spotted one female under a leaf, absolutely still, laying eggs. Quietly, I moved in to take some photos. 

Puliyarila: medicinal

Next, Venu chettan asked us to taste the leaves of the rather innocuous looking Puliyarila plant. It gets that name because it has three pairs of compound leaves like shamrock. Hence Puli=sour +Aaru=six+ila=leaves making it Puli-aar-ila. The "puli" part became clear as we chewed. The leaves tasted almost as good as the great Indian tamarind. 

The backyard also had Pavazhamalli (Coral Jasmine) and Mandaram (Red bauhinia) flowers, vanilla, pine-apple, finger millet (kuvaraku) which was the most popular baby food till Manmohan Singh opened up India's markets, cherries and jackfruits (of the preferred 'varikka' type). According to Hindu mythology, the pavazhamalli (parijaata) flower came out of the churning of the celestial ocean mentioned in yesterday's note. There is also an interesting story about both of Krishna's wives desiring that plant (which flowers only in August). He plants it in Rukmini's garden in such a way that flowers fall in Satyabhama's garden. Or may be it was the other way round (roots at Satyabhama's, flowers at Rukmini's) but that is not the point of the story. 

Vanilla

There were also the turmeric plants which had led to the home-ground turmeric powder mentioned in an earlier note.
Two jackfruits were ripe. So they were plucked. My cousin sister refused to cut them open in the yard. She was scared of a neighbor who has a "ruinous evil eye"! Turns out she had around a dozen chicken last year. Healthy, big ones that would follow her around the yard and up to the gate when she left for work. One day this neighbor noticed them at the gate and remarked, "What amazingly healthy chicken you have!". From that night onwards, one by one, a "fox" stole all the chicken!

During the drives today from house to house, our extended family's history (including dark and dirty bits) extending back to couple of generations were discussed. I will use the material for future scripts! Amma won't be pleased.

Obligatory remark about my prospective marriage was made at the home we stopped by in the afternoon. This time with a slant reference to my age included. Looks like I still haven't ran the clock out. 

Turmeric

Our final stop was at a distant relative's who runs a lucrative side-business of mathematics coaching for engineering entrance exam. He makes a hundred thousand rupees a month.

On our way back, we took a newly opened highway. Amma had been wanting to buy some rose plants and flower pots. So we stopped at a highway-side makeshift plant nursery. The prices were high. "Why do we need these now? We can shop leisurely and get better deals after the wedding," I suggested. "There should be some flowers in the garden when guests come for the wedding. It will also be good to take the bride's photographs in front of them." I repeatedly banged my forehead on the nearby concrete lampost...softly! After all, it is my head!
A couple of middle-aged aunties were searching through the roses plants as well. There was another stubby, potted plant behind the roses. It had some fruits on it that looked like miniature tomatoes. "What is it?" I asked the aunty mistaking her for the owner of the establishment. She said she didn't know and turned to the unkempt, aged worker who was busy painting some flower pots. He was the man-in-charge left there by the owner. He spoke no Malayalam or English. Only Hindi.
Aunty: (pointing to the plant) Entha ithu? (what is this?)
Worker: Ek paudha...mmmm...plant hai! (It is one plant...a plant)
Aunty: Entha plant hai? (what plant?)
Worker: (great Indian headbobbing) Ek plant! (One plant)
Aunty: (great Indian headbobbing) Oh. (Ok)
It is a brilliant business idea to leave a non-malayalee, who doesn't speak or understand the language at all, in charge. It prevents any possibility of haggling and he works for cheap. There is no fear of his unionising and going on strike against the low wages. No amount of "bhayya"-calling from Amma brought the prices down from the 25 per plant and 50 per pot that he had been told to collect. Though he is in the same country, without any knowledge of the local language, his labor is not much above indentured in nature. 
India celebrates its Independence Day tomorrow. 
Entha Independence hai?
Ek Independence!
Oh