Gardens that kept me afloat

September 10, 2021May 9, 2022 devayanitirthaliLeave a comment

I started keeping a facebook photo diary on my terrace garden in Delhi. As I share happenings in my garden, Facebook also keeps showing some memories long forgotten, and I wander reminiscing. Experiencing all over again the feel of each and every plant; the excitement of the first sprout, first flower, first gourd flower turning to fruit; taste of home grown veggies; mystery of unknown plants cropping up.

My garden in NYC started with a Mogra plant. I had a habit of wandering in the neighbourhoods on my way home instead of taking the subway near my university. One summer walking home from the medical campus I was pleasantly surprised, shocked, overwhelmed to see a mogra plant in a small shop selling garden supplies somewhere in Washington heights. Mogra is my soul flower. It was like a call from home. So I bought it for $14.99. An exhorbitant price at that time. For comparison, my eating out/pampering myself budget was $5/month.

That started me off on my journey of window boxes in the 1 room I shared with Selen. One room meant, 2 windows, 1 with a heating coil under it so effectively just one window. When Parag moved to NYC and we moved into a 1BR apartment. Suddenly there were 4 viable windows beckoning me. Unfortunately, as we moved in the dead of winter in January, in spite of all the wrapping and blankets, the first Mogra didn’t survive the move.

In spring, I experimented with daisies, asters. Mums in fall. With plants at home the empty squares on the sidewalk beckoned me and I started putting in seedlings wherever I found place. Everybody stared, finally a well meaning granny pointed out that I was digging in nasty stuff that should be left unturned. haha. Don’t remember how many of those sapplings took root, but that activity gave me a better eye for wild plants, flowers, generally flora and fauna. I suddenly started seeing many more minute details, the little critters, new life after the first thaw, changing textures and colours.

The NB apartment was the epitome of luxury after the cramped NYC apartments. We had a longish balcony, an actual open space attached to the house. Plenty of space and height for the indoor plant we inherited from Perien while we were in NYC. All the plants moved with us from NYC, and moved again to PVD, finally in their own space to expand rather than the cramped window boxes.

Providence garden finally provided the space for experimenting on a larger scale. Growing vegetables, trying out different seasonal plants etc but what I remember the most is the first spring and the entire summer after that. As the ground thawed, we saw various flowers and sprouts coming up one after the other. Some places like the corners next to the steps, obviously had some plants in hybernation but I did not expect the surprises popping up everywhere as the temperature increased. Grape hycinth, white grass lily, to bearded iris and black eyed susans. All an enigma.

Each and every garden was a salve for the soul. A link to the distant home, warmth and sign of life in the dead of winter, and as we grew with each other, a way to find home in the new places.

Dilli Diary

Terrace gardening

March 29, 2019April 1, 2019 devayanitirthaliLeave a comment

We are more than one year old in Delhi now. Gardening was among many of the items on the list ‘struggle to adjust’. One of the reasons we chose this rental place was the huge terrace (double the size of the living space) and the potential to have a bustling veggie garden. It has been a bumpy road to say the least.

The weather was perplexing. How do you get any length of any season when you go suddenly from bitter cold to extreme heat? The warming up in March brought insects and infestations like I have never seen before. Aphids, white flies, and things unknown to me that burnt the plant to a stick in just one day. Then there were birds – mostly pigeons and peacocks that feasted on every young shoot in sight, leaving nothing to grow to even a foot of height.

I was cleaning old photos today and found many many photos of plants, infestations, and other garden related things, captured to share with my facebook and whatsapp groups. They have been a godsend. It was amazing to see how the terrace garden has grown to what it is now in spite of all this, from the first three pots left by previous tenant and some plants I got from Pune. And more importantly, the photos of veggies we ate in between since last June and now. Overall, a mixed bag.

The starters from Pune and initial plants bought in Delhi:

Some photos of produce, flowers, and seedlings. I need to take more as motivators to flip through when going gets tough 🙂

Dilli Diary · Musings

Delhi Diary

February 1, 2018February 15, 2024 devayanitirthaliLeave a comment

We are one month old in Delhi. 🙂
After living outside India for 12 years when we decided to be back in India, friends and family cautioned us that it is going to be a huge adjustment. A good friend in Delhi pointed out that there is getting reacquainted to India and there is getting used to Delhi. I wholeheartedly agree. Delhi is a different animal altogether.

Here are some good, bad, ugly, and just plain different:
1. Delhi Metro: The best thing so far. Second day in Delhi we got ourselves a metro card and it has been smooth sailing since then. First day it reminded me of NYC subway. Something familiar and so liberating. Since then I have realized that it is much better – it is clean, easy to navigate, and has pretty good signage.

2. No restaurants in sight: This one is specific to the area we live in. First day we wandered around trying to find something for breakfast. We still have tough time finding something decent. There are chaat corners, winter chaat vendors, chaaiwalas but just 1 restaurant in our area (10-15 mins walk) and another walking distance of half an hour that we found closed for renovation the day we decided to eat out. *sigh*
North Delhi I am told is the old culture while South Delhi is cosmopolitan. It sure shows in the food scene.

3. Expectation of man to man talk: It is extremely difficult to get anything done from anybody. The electrician, the plumber, the Bosch installation person look at Parag every time they answer a question, even when I ask the question. For the last 20 years I have done all these things myself so it is quite frustrating, infuriating. I have to keep pushing Parag to ask questions, negotiate or give ultimatums (which is part of a normal conversation here. More on the conversation/negotiation dance later). If you know Parag, it is the most difficult thing for him to do. This is, I am sure, very specific to Delhi or may be North Delhi (or North India?). I have never had this problem in Pune.

4. Security check in Metro and Malls: Every time you enter a metro station you have to go through a metal detector, get patted down, and put your bags through a scanner. Same with malls or big commercial buildings. There are separate lines for women with lady police officers and a ‘private’ space for the pat down. It may sound appalling to my friends in US but surprisingly I got used to it in a day (might be because of similar experience in Pune during the 2011 visit). Now it is part of the everyday rhythm. A family member of mine in Delhi who takes this as a given is appalled at the thought that NYC or for that matter any of the US or European city public transport systems do not have ‘security’. ‘How can you be safe without it?’ is his bewildered question.