Flowers, Fragrance And a Phantom

I should have been a sniffer  of sorts in my previous birth and the imprints seem to continue in this birth too

It was middle of March. As we go to the terrace to enjoy our evening  cuppa I inform my better half of a  delicate scent in the air.

"Today is Friday.... the fragrant sticks might have been lit up in some houses"

"But it is different." I said

We walk around and he smiles back at me.  It is not the fragrant sticks  but  the branches of a neem tree from the   house behind  bowing  towards our terrace with little starry  creamy scented flowers! It was just the formal inaugural. This fragrant path would move from strength to strength  gaining momentum till the end of April when day in and day out  the plentiful bunches perfumed the ambiance!

This following incident happened years back. Once we were travelling  from Chennai to Delhi and from the Delhi airport we took a cab to the city (It was  May ). On the way, the  a/c in the car fluttered and we had the only option of opening the windows. My hubby was worried about the  Delhi dry heat. But as the saying  goes everything is a blessing in disguise. As he gingerly opened the windows, it was not the Delhi heat that hit me but  the heady fragrance from the  flowering  neem trees lining  either side of the road !! Long live the monarch of Delhi who planned these trees !

"Is it not the our own neem fragrance?" (he is also excelling himself in the art!) I nodded and held his hand. We were in cloud nine! The driver was apologetic as he dropped us at the destination and suggested that we reduce an amount from the fare for the inconvenience. But he was in for surprise when we explained that he had unknowingly  handed us a bonus  of a fragrant ride and rewarded him with a tip he well deserved!!

In the same old Delhi we experienced a varied fragrance when our friend invited us for a early morning walk at Buddha Jayanthi  park. Many of us would have seen or heard about the coral jasmine trees (short trees with 5 or 6 petal flowers with  reddish orange stem and a perennial) which start to give out their fragrance from around the evening and continue through the morning. In Tamil Nadu  we grow just one tree in a house mainly for  pooja . But as we entered the park  we were  literally flooded and inundated  with the scent. The authorities in charge  have indeed fenced the path ways with these coral jasmine trees filling the breath of the walkers with pleasantness in addition to laying a royal carpet of flowers!!

Our walk from home to the Besant Nagar church on Sunday  morning is a bonanza during this season.  The sniffer in me starts the process in right earnest. It is not just the neem tree blossoms  that vie for attention but the hairy pink and white flowers of the rain trees compete with them! This fragrant concoction makes one to forget  the diesel smell and also the umpteen number of deterrent vehicles parked on the "walkers" platform !

We also had a coral jasmine tree in our house. There is a way of collecting these flowers: Two persons should hold a cloth underneath  the tree and one person should shake the tree vigourously and a heap of flowers fills the cloth. My father in law, an artist by hobby used to collect those jasmines to decorate the altar on a daily basis and on special days  like birthdays wedding anniversaries etc  he would go further with  'age' 'names' and 'God Bless you ' decorations. It is not just for his children  grand children or the great grand children but he did it for the extended family and friends so much so  our altar was like the facade of a wedding house almost all through the year!!

The tree couldn't withstand the Chennai floods of December2015  and alas we have lost it!

It was  rainy season. We were at our school in Trichy. As we got out of our car, the air was filled with wood jasmine smell and the ground was carpeted with those long stemmed white beauties (thanks to my brother in law,  a crazy tree lover)! And the tiny tots in the KG were busy in the verandah with the flowers doing  scented designs to their heart's content instead of the routine recital of 'ABCD' or the 'one to hundred' or the 'Bah bah black sheep'! What a beautiful way to introduce the children to nature and it's fragrance! A life lesson indeed!!

There is a funny incident related to my dear flowers which I would like to share with you. We were at Edenganni for the summer holidays. It might be hotter than Chennai, prickly heat and boils may be waiting in the wings ready to pounce but yet this is heaven for us what  with the gathering of relatives, a full chapel for a change, the singing of our Lady's litany  throughout May and the enticing smell of vessel full of fried lentils kept as offering in the altar....... a tete et tete after the prayers..... um..m...m...

 Our driver  tired after a day's driving decided to sleep in the thinnai (verandah) so as to enjoy the southern breeze through the night.

Next day morning he called me in confidence and told me there is a ghost in the house. I laughed.  "Our Sandana madha (St Anne) hath indeed made a covenant with our ancestors to guard against all evil forces leave alone your ghost."

 "Madam you won't believe if I say this. I woke up suddenly in the middle of the night. The whole place was filled with jasmine smell and at the very moment I saw a white figure gliding past through our door to the street. I was shaking; I pulled the bed sheet over my head and tried my best to get some sleep but it was next to impossible.

I was stiff as a log but the jasmine smell left behind by the ghost wouldn't go."

I just thought for some time. There was no necessity for him to lie.

 The next moment I was  started laughing.

" Madam seems to think that I am lying." My driver was sad

 "No my dear man..... not at all...Do you know my little nephew next doors and he wanted to sleep with us for the  night."

"Yes madam  he  even said good night to me."

"Exactly....But at the middle of the night he decided otherwise and  wanted to go back his mother. He whispered the message to me and ran off. And he wrapped a white bedsheet, as it was cold and walked through the house to go to the adjoin house."

"Ah..ha.....  now I understand...." he said  not yet convinced

 But what about the smell madam... ? There is no jasmine plant or creeper around........

"Look up" I told him. In front of the house the noni tree was standing in tall in all its majesty, resplendent with stumpy little white flowers.

"And do you know that the fragrance from these flowers are  headier  than the best of jasmines?"

 It was indeed a pure coincident that my driver woke up at the moment my nephew came out and the southern breeze blew in the fragrance.  The explanations convinced him.

That night he had a wonderful sleep of course with the jasmine smell all around!!