Can’t think of a title

Hello, everyone! I’m back again to the blogging world. I know I took extra long to come back, the reason being I couldn’t write anything. I’d sit down in front of my computer to start this post, but my mind was blank. As most of you know, I was busy the week before last week on my Sister’s Marriage. It was a grand function! I was happy for my sister that she’s getting married to someone until the day she got married and suddenly I realized that she’s moving out of our family! Yes, she’s been living in Germany for past two years and before that she lived in hostel for four years as her doctorate demanded that she be near her lab, but still she was MY sister and would always be there to watch midnight movies. She was always there for me to make fun of her, to fight with her… to call her MY SISTER! And suddenly the fact that she’ll have a family of her own and that when in India she can no more spend all of her time over at my place sounds scary.

For some of you this might be strange as your sisters and brothers might move out once they’re twenty-plus but in almost all of the Indian families we live together and the sudden moving out comes as a shock. I was difficult for me to accept the fact – the reality… I read somewhere that Marriage is an introduction to reality! Now I realize how true it is…

Well, while I was over at the marriage hall for about two and half days, we trusted our building’s caretaker to water out plants but I don’t know if she didn’t water our plants well of my plants started missing our presence, some of them died! After the marriage, bidding her goodbye to her in-laws (which was so damned painful), I return back home and ran up to the terrace to check my babies out. It only added to my grief! I saw this all around the garden…

Did they miss our (my mom/mine) presence? They seemed to reflect my state of mind, as if joining in my grief. The Rangoon Creeper was completely yellow and the next day, it looked a wee better but nothing promising. I realized that it was time to do major jobs on all my babies. It was especially sad to see the Common Leucas all dried up – it used to give me at least a hundred flowers every day! Yes, you heard me right – hundred is the number! The Jasmines were attacked by spider mites (I couldn’t bear to photograph it)! It was as if they were crying up on looking at me.

The Gaillardias added to the fuel and a lump rose up to my throat. I couldn’t stand there helplessly, as it was scorching hot and I couldn’t water the babies. I ran back down and tried to get my mind off all the thoughts – the thoughts of missing my sister and my hurting plants!

It was a painful night, but the next day when I watered them all amply, one of the plants surprised me with this.

It was as if saying, “Your sister found her match in life like we did!”

A smile curved my lips lightly and I continued on with watering…

I had to pull out certain plants like this unknown mystery. Some had to be heavily pruned and some needed cleanup. While cutting down the Butterfly Pea, I saw this –

This was the culprit that reduced this Vines flowers. Out came soap water spray and that seems to have done the trick. The vine looks a lot healthy now.

Though almost every pot had some sadness in it, this one particular pot totally surprise me. I had initially planted the Wood Apple tree in it which didn’t seem to grow well at all and stopped growing after months of pruning, fertilizing, etc., so before the dewy season, I cut it down to the root. I tried to pull it out, but it was disturbing my Passion Flower Vine that shared the pot with Wood Apple. So I left it as such thinking Wood Apple would never make it, but now look at it! It looks sooo fresh – much better than when I bought it. Now it needs a separate pot, but is that possible? Will I be able to separate the vine and the tree without hurting the other? Let’s see.

Now after a week, after going over many wonderful blogs, with my work keeping my mind busy, with the cleaning up of every pot and plant, I’ve gotten over my emotions, of course not completely, but I feel better enough to write this post. I know this all sounds stupid – my emotions about my sister being separated and all that. I’d have laughed at my dad or my uncle if they’d told me they had similar feeling about their sisters. I’d have thought they were being silly, but now I realize how difficult it is! [sigh]

Note to my sis: Hi, I wish you hadn’t read this post, as I don’t want you thinking that I’m sad. If you have, yes, I am a bit, but I am more than happy that you have a family of your own now and I’ll still be there for you.