ManaManeNa

The word "cottage garden" is synonymous with the English cottage garden all over the world. That word itself brings to mind the picture postcard images of pastel coloured blousy flowers such as, roses, foxgloves, cow slips and many of those typical English flowers that are grown in India during the winter. The philosophy behind creating the English cottage garden was however not to grow flowers but to create a functional space to grow vegetables, herbs and medicinal plants for the common folks. These gardens used to supplement the daily needs and provided medicines for common ailments of the owners. In fact, cottage gardens all over the world serve the same purpose and their cultivators add a dimension of beauty and individualism to it. Indian adobe with a cottage garden When I visualize an Indian cottage garden, I picture an adobe in the middle of green pastures of paddy or wheat fields. The vines of pumpkin, gourds and spinach scrambling to climb the roofs of those little h...

Cestrum nocturnum or Ms. Hasnahena Hasnahena or Night Jessamine (Cestrum nocturnum) is one of those inconspicuous little flowers which you can simply walk past and not spend a second thought until the night fall. You would then start looking around madly for the unknown beauty which is emanating the intoxicating perfume. Once you solve the mystery you would start reveling in the nature’s whims that such simplicity in looks can have that immense an effect on other senses. I was only four years old when I was introduced to Ms. Hasnahena. We lived in a government allocated house with a garden (which we shared with another family). That garden was immense in my eyes and felt as dense and mysterious as the forests of Congo! Our wash basin was next to a corridor connected to the garden and my mother was accompanying me to wash my hands at night. I was hit by the sweet smell and asked my Ma what was that? “Hasnahena”, said my Ma and we turned to get in the house but we couldn’t! Russel'...