Let's Grow!

When reaching for the usual ingredients while cooking one day,  I found my garlic cloves were sending out shoots and not just one or two of them, entire pods! I don't know what it is about this batch of garlic but they really want to grow! Their urge to take root so strongly expressed, I kept aside one or two cloves to be potted.

Now I must mention that in the past I have attempted to grow garlic. We have two balcony spaces which house the potted plants where they get ample light and air.  On my previous attempt, the plant showed promise but soon wilted and then I didn't try again until I found these super fast growing ones!

Is it the moisture-laden weather that is causing them to grow ? or do they simply have more life-force-energy in them? ;) Don't know  the answer to that but I planted one clove in the spare planter that I had and I even gave some to a friend living in the building who grows plants and vegetables in her balconies.

Inspired by my own act of sharing, I'm now all the more enthused to go visit my neighbourhood nursery and get planters and soil to sow more garlic cloves.

I have watched quite a few tutorials on YouTube as to how to grow these herbs, and apparently you need to give the garlic enough depth and a couple of inches of space between the cloves for the garlic to grow. One youtuber did say that if you do closely space them, the only difference would be that they will be smaller in size, which was alright by her.

Let's see, I'm enjoying the sight of the young garlic shoots echoing the freshness and newness that monsoon brings. We face the south-west end of Borivali National Park and the hills are so lush and green with such a good rainfall this year, nearly everyday we are treated to the beautiful sights of misty clouds passing over the hills.

It has been perhaps over three years since I last posted on this blog. During this time I became a mother and life took a pleasant and completely new turn. I'm now back to drawing and painting and writing on my blog as well. My daughter Mila Norzom is now 3 and half years old and is quite the curious preschooler. But more on that later.

I will love to share how the garlic plants develop in future posts.

Happy Autumn Equinox!  Praying that we all find our peace here on this earth.

Love + light.

Plants on my mind

Lately I've been giving the flat a make-over or clean-over of sorts, just been feeling the need for freshness, to simply let go of stale energy and make room for the new and unexpected :-) I've been feeling the same way about our balcony-garden. It's not really a garden but that is how I like to think of it :-) We've got potted plants,  forming sort of a window-frame to the view outside.

I had been thinking of adding some new plants to the balcony, maybe some flowering plants, perhaps..I must admit to a curious habbit here, whenever I'm walking about, I will always look at people's flats and windows to see what kind of plants they've kept and how well maintained they are. A well-maintained  window-scape always impresses and inspires me.

A few weeks ago, I happened to be in bandra, lunching with some old friends whom I hadn't met in the longest time, and on my way to the restaurant I'd spied a nursery right at the curb of Pali market. So after lunch I requested my friend who would be giving me a ride home to come with me while I looked around in the nursery hoping to take some new green friends home. I took two plants that day, the succulent in the picture above and another flowering plant (whose names I don't know yet but only how to care for them).

The net in the picture is to keep the pigeons away, ever since we've gotten these stretched across the balcony, the balcony has been much easier to maintain and they offer protection to the plants  from the pigeons incessant habbit of picking at their stems and leaves.

Now that we've long since taken care of  the mess the pigeons were creating, (they are so peaceful otherwise) I love the way the space is slowly gaining character, each plant and knick-knack finding its place.

love + light always :-)

Tree spirit

Dreamin'
Originally uploaded by kidrdaso

One day I hope to find my own tree, under whose shade I can just be me :-)
I already do feel close to a rain-tree where my parents' live, its twisted branches are so familiar to me from years of looking at from the window and playing hide and seek as a child around it's trunk....
may there be more trees amongst us
we need our tree-spirit friends

love + light
x

Rainbow Blessings

As the last of this season's monsoon showers come to an end, I'm reminded of the beautiful rainbows we were witness to last year. On one such sighting, I remember, the sun was about to go down, and I saw this beautiful wide arc of the rainbow, straight from a children's story book, rising from the horizon in the south-east and descending in the north-east. I was so overjoyed that I immediately started to text some of my closest friends to tell them of it, one of them called me and we stopped doing whatever is it that we were doing and just stood near our windows and balconies admiring this gift from the heavens, breathing in this transient display of of ethereal light, it was hard to belief, here in Bombay! such a beautiful sign!

(The picture above is of another rainbow siting, the one I'm speaking of was a complete arc, even if I could have taken a picture, it would have been only a part of it, as it was so wide!!! from one end of the city to the other..)

Rainbows always feel so magical, they stay in the sky for all of us to see only for a brief period of time, making their appearance all the more special, because we know it won't last, it will change...
it is a simple natural phenomenon really and yet it evokes so much awe and delight....

Personally I love to think of rainbows metaphorically as spiritual lessons or realizations even gifts learned or received after the dark challenges of cloudy days...like a metaphysical treat! :-)
may we all see the 'rainbow' in our cloudy days....

love + light! :-)

Spring, Igatpuri: 2 day self-course.

Last weekend I attended a two day self-course for old vipassana students at Dhammagiri, the Vipassana Meditation centre in Igatpuri. It is hard to believe that two days of turning your attention within can bring about so much peace and change in one's life. I feel better, renewed and I couldn't have gone at a better time, even though temperatures have been hovering around 35 degrees celsisus. There were beautiful flowering trees and the birds twittered and babbled from dawn till dusk :)

Igatpuri was where it all began for me, and it is a pleasure to return each time. As I grow older, I now appreciate more things, for example like being able to meditate in a peaceful environment where the meditation hall is kept ready for you much before you have entered, where the paths are swept of fallen leaves each day, where your meals are lovingly served, and teachers watch and listen patiently to everyone, over 200 women in each course and as many number of men too.

It was delightful to be in the midst of nature, walking past well kept flower-beds from the meditaion hall to one's room. You open your door and you are outside :) Sorely miss that in a flat.

Its funny how as you get older you look forward to hours of meditation and then listening to the discourses at the end of the day. The mind due to its conditioning isn't very helpful but expereience tells you otherwise and you know how much you will learn and enjoy the spoken wisdom after you have put in your practise for the day :) (theory and practise should go hand in hand- Goenkaji's words).

Here are a few photos I took of place before and after the course. Hope you enjoy :)

Walking area for women.

Imposing mountain facing Igatpuri Vipassana Centre

View of the mountains as one walks out of the meditaion centre.

Near the main gate is the recently erected replica of the Ashoka stambha.

As you enter you pass through the elegant Myanmar gate, which reminds one of the story of how the teaching of Vipassana was lost to India but was preserved in Burma, from where it returned to India after 2,500 years and then spread to the world.

love + light!

Have a lovely weekend!

Nature therapy- Aarey guest House

Aarey Guest house is my favourite part of Aarey Milk Colony, your cellphone will not receive any network here, so the moment you enter to the moment you leave, you are alone.....with nature and give or take a few more people :)

Spring, summer has such an intoxicating effect, I think I love all seasons, even hot and humid April... there are many trees in brilliant bloom right now..... many parts of the world will be witnessing the earth returning to life with buds and young leaves reassuring us of nature's eternal cycle of impermanence.

Here are a few pictures I took during my last walk at Aarey Guest House, enjoy! :)

The path leading up to the guest houses situated on top of a hill, when you reach the top you get a beautiful view of the city. I took these pictures in the evening.

Didn't get a very good shot, but you may notice pods bursting with cotton.....red silk cotton tress? will find out...

African wattle tree with its yellow blossoms strewn on the path, I love these blossoms, this is my "Indian Spring" :) they are the flowers that inspired me to take pictures in Aarey, if you walk in the New Zealand Hostel area, you will find entire canopies of these trees in bloom, and the delicate blossoms raining on all and sundry....

Gravel and flower in what is called the "golden hour", the last light of the sun which has a magical effect.....

my favourite picture, in the background is a defocused image of a lady, resident of the forest no doubt, collecting wood for domestic purposes......

and here is a link to a beautiful website that will give you information on the Flowers of India.

Have a lovely weekend!
Love + light!

That Christmas-y feeling

I was at Chimanlal recently to pick up some handmade papers. While I waited for them to get the roll of papers I'd ordered, I happily looked around at the charming items on display when this delightful little angel caught my eye, (how close we are to Christmas!) Immediately I bought a few :)

Flat at first, the angel opens up like this to reveal an adorable silhouette :)

so minimal yet so delightful.......I plan to get some more to give my friends, to send positive angel energy :)

**************
Christmas lights on Hill Road.

This Sunday I was in Bandra to assist my teacher at a free Dance Yoga Workshop she gave as part of Celebrate Bandra Festival. The venue for the workshop was a quiet tucked away garden called Malla Park, off Pali Malla Road. For me, more than the workshop was the joy at discovering this little garden (even though it is called park!). To get there you have to take the lane just besides The Bagel Shop, on Pali Malla road which is near Rizvi College and enroute St.Anne's church. After the workshop ended I wound my way down from Pali market to Hill road and there I came across these colourful Christmas decorations :)

Honestly, my pictures don't do full justice. I remember it was much brighter.

Christmas is never as Christmas-y in any another part of the city, the little cribs on display, the winding narrow lanes, the old homes, the bakeries, the goan accent (what men!) I miss that... but what is there to miss, really! I'll just swing by and breathe in the ambience, take a stroll down Chimbai/memory lane :)

may everyone have a very warm Christmas...

love + light!

Home - a personal mandala

Flowers are natural mandalas. Speaking of which, our homes can be our personal mandalas too. Read the following excerpt from Juliet Pegrum's book The Vaastu Home.

(even if you don't keep vastu shastra in mind while while doing up your home or office space.)

"Accordinly, if we design our homes in line with Vastu principles, they become our personal mandalas, in tune with both our true selves and the world that surrounds us. Whenever we enter our homes, we become aware of our intrinsic place within the universe, a sense of connection with all things that bring happiness and fulfilment to our lives"

It would be amazing if one arranged their home with the above philosophy in mind, even if only guided by intuition, everything would be so sacred, every corner so loved!

Love & light!

Landscaping my balcony

I don't know if I have a green thumb, as they say but I love having plants around me. Blessed is a home that is full of vibrant plants. My yoga teacher's balcony is so organic, it is like a miniature jungle, and I was not surprised when a pair of purple-rumped sunbirds made a hanging nest among her creepers. Each class we could see and hear the chirpy little ones until one day the egg hatched and the baby flew away. Such positive energy!

May more and more people in cities fill out their windows, balconies, terraces and building compounds with helpful plants and trees!

wooden bird chime


ficus in a ceramic pot

happy little corner with pudina/mint in a polka-dot ceramic pot, money-plant which I intend to grow like a screen, small jade with a little Buddha scuplture which is not visible here and a hanging plant with three diffrently coloured flowering plants. It will be fun to see them grow :)

Love & light!

Blessed

view of the hills from home and the sea of concrete which I have come to see simply as homes of many many

families....every morning is beautiful with the sky, clouds and hills, there is a watefall too in the distance!

Dear friends apologies for a long blog absence, I hope these last two months have been good for everyone. Life in Bombay is as they say has been, "same same but different" (ha..ha)....in my earlier posts I had mentioned that I recently moved to a part of the suburbs that was until now unfamiliar to me. I will simply say I feel blessed living near Filmcity in Goregaon east, I enjoy the morning sunlight and view of the hills. We now stay near Aarey Milk Colony, that lush green expanse. It is tranquil there and I love to go there for early morning walks and my greatest delight is to be able do some bird-watching on my own :)

Soon I will be sharing more of my explorations, of the feathery kind and of the arty kind too. For instance I've been meaning to share the poetry of a dear artist and friend Sarita Chauhan. It will be my pleasure to share her writing on my next post.

Till then love & light! (literally Diwali is just round the corner!)