![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
smittenbyuAfter 19 years of living in apartments, my parents were looking forward to be living in a house on the ground floor with a garden. They were so keen on having a garden that they even built an indoor one for the wintry cold days (well, wintry for Bangalore standards). But the attachment to gardens roots back to the garden we grew up with in Hyderabad. Dad was the gardener. We had two gardens in fact on either side of the house. So one side grew the vegetables & fruits - kitchen garden and the other, where we spent most of our time grew all the pretty flowers. Here grew the love for roses; as we had one in almost every color. We had bougainvillea, hibiscus, jasmine, papaya, banana, pomegranate. Our favorite though was the guava tree. Actually we liked our neighbor's guava tree as it grew into our side and ours grew into theirs. Theirs produced big juicy guavas, that grew to double the size of a tennis ball. Ours was smaller than the tennis ball.
There would be days mom would make us stay home. In times like those we were in the garden. We would climb up the guava tree and get up on the wall, where we would meet the neighboring kids and have a nice chat. Yes, atop the walls. Our neighbor behind, their kids would walk on over and also join in the fun. We technically didn't leave home! ;)
The garden had a deck made of concrete slabs. Where we kept a few chairs to sit on. This was where during the summer our aunts would seat us down and feed us lunch while telling us stories. It was where grand mom would comb her hair after a bath and chant some prayers in the morning. Summer also brought a lot of heat. Temperatures would rise into the late 30s CENTIGRADE (late 80s F) and occasionally to 41-43C (100-110 F). Sister and I would get so excited when we were asked to spray some water on the concrete slabs to get a cooling effect. We would enjoy watching the steam rise up when the water hit the slabs. And yes, we both would run around barefoot. Our soles were quite thick and rough back then.
Such carefree days were spent in that garden. Anytime I see a garden it fills me with so much joy for this very reason. Good memories, good times.
There would be days mom would make us stay home. In times like those we were in the garden. We would climb up the guava tree and get up on the wall, where we would meet the neighboring kids and have a nice chat. Yes, atop the walls. Our neighbor behind, their kids would walk on over and also join in the fun. We technically didn't leave home! ;)
The garden had a deck made of concrete slabs. Where we kept a few chairs to sit on. This was where during the summer our aunts would seat us down and feed us lunch while telling us stories. It was where grand mom would comb her hair after a bath and chant some prayers in the morning. Summer also brought a lot of heat. Temperatures would rise into the late 30s CENTIGRADE (late 80s F) and occasionally to 41-43C (100-110 F). Sister and I would get so excited when we were asked to spray some water on the concrete slabs to get a cooling effect. We would enjoy watching the steam rise up when the water hit the slabs. And yes, we both would run around barefoot. Our soles were quite thick and rough back then.
Such carefree days were spent in that garden. Anytime I see a garden it fills me with so much joy for this very reason. Good memories, good times.
