A July afternoon..

 It is the month of July. The year is 2023.

It just turned 12 noon a few minutes ago. After a spell of summer rains, the weather is a bit cool, some respite from the hot June. 

Pondy is buzzing with the coming of some political figures from Delhi. Though we dont have decent roads, the TAC ground is being beautified for the VIP's visit. That's politics. While we have money for such functions, we don't have enough for creating basic facilities.. 

A few kilometers - in Krishna Nagar, adjacent to the East Coast Road a new police station is being built in a water body. Absolutely no problems with that for Pondy govt. In fact, the govt thinks that it has the "right" to encroach on water bodies. Because they have already done it many times.  Same Krishna Nagar, crores of rupees are being spent to "pump" out rainwater to the Bay of Bengal because the water spaces have all been encroached upon. We have plenty of money for pumping out rainwater, but not to harvest them in Ponds or Eris (lakes).  Interestingly a whole racket of public servants including former Directors/Registrar, politicians/MLA - the list goes on and on - all are involved in a huge land-grab - to the tune of some 60,000 sq.ft of common lands. This is Pondy. The same Pondy which is known for spirit-ual tourism.  

Where time takes a break. 

Yes, it is somewhat a cool afternoon. We Pondicherrians are used to all these. Be cool. Give all your concerns a break. 

The humble hibiscus

I have always looked at the hibiscus flower as a humble one, though I don't know why so. It is quite an attractive flower, does not require any extra inputs for flowering so liberally, and the flowers, the leaves are super beneficial for us - be it as a natural shampoo, for making hair oils, or making super tasty hibiscus flower juices.

I remember my childhood when we kids used to collect the flowers and feed them to the calf which relished and would consume them and would allow us to caress it.  Even cows love hibiscus flowers very much.

Collecting these flowers for the Onam (one of the key festivals of Kerala -India) floral circles called Pookkalam was a craze as these flowers are available in plenty and would make multiple circles with hibiscus flowers of different colours. Sometimes, when flowers are scarce, we even collect the leaves and make a green circle though it was considered among children as cheating.

So I still don't know why I consider this being a "humble" flower.

But look at it again, don't you also feel like it is a humble flower?

Another hot year?

It was a cloudy day to start with... but as the day progressed, the clouds departed and the sun came out quite harshly.

But being under lockdown, you don't feel the heat much... at least for fortunate people like me. But for the ordinary people working in the fields, it is quite a harsh day. This year is going to be another "hottest" year, no doubt.

The evening was anyhow cool and breezy...

Hues of beauty...