Mathy

Hibiscus (Sembaruthi ??????????? in Tamil) is probably the first flower i saw in Pungudutheevu. Not my favourite. But the brilliant red color amidst the green leaves attracted me. There are different kinds of sembaruthi. What we had in our house is the ordinary kind. Some of my relatives had adukku sembaruthi - two layers of petals. Another variety had fancy design. I never thought much about the different kinds.

If there is a family celebration or poosai at the temple, the youngsters were told to pluck flowers from our garden and our neighbours gardens. The temple did have a small garden adjacent to the north wall. Have never been inside. But, i guess the flowers were just enough for the daily poosai.

It is quite fascinating to track down the changes that happens to the hibiscus flower bud. You can some flower buds in the photo above. I will try to take a closeup next time. Just the day before flowering the red petals would be quite prominent. In the beginning, when we had just arrived to Pungudutheevu, I’ve triend unsuccesfully to be awake and spot the exact moment when the bud unfurls into a flower. Still havent.

Later, we moved to India and from there I moved to Honolulu. Honolulu with all the strangeness was quite comforting because of the flora and fauna. It was like being in Pungudutheevu, if I venture out into the country side. That’s a topic worthy of a seperate post. Hibiscus is the state flower of Hawaii. As such the road sides were paved with hibiscus. It’s just that they were not the variety I was used to in Sri Lanka. There were so many varieties of them in so many different colors. And none of them had the unique fragrance i remembered from my younger days. But, they were still beautiful, like the flower on these photos. This is a plant that we bought in Home Depot.

vaNakkam!

This is my third attempt to maintain an english blog. I have created one couple of years ago. But did not pay much attention to it. But lately i’ve been feeling a need to write things in English. Especially when i find myself mixing French words with English.

 At one time when I was in school I aspired to learn French, when i saw my friend’s brother going to Aliance Francais. But as manythings in life, that did not progress further. Later I became enamoured with Spanish - still am. Somehow I found myself on this side of the 49th parallel, which i swore i would never do. Providence eh?

 I might not have planned in this. But, lately I’m very happy that i moved to Canada..

 What is this 49th parallel?

From Wikipedia:

The 49th parallel of north latitude forms part of the international boundary between Canada and the United States from Manitoba to British Columbia on the Canadian side and from Minnesota to Washington on the U.S. side. Its use as a border is a result of the Anglo-American Convention of 1818 and the Oregon Treaty of 1846.