Reviving my blog today after many years on being urged by my youngest nephew Manu Chandra who has kept up the inetrest in home gardening in our family inherited by me from Pitaji, my father an avid gardener. Curiously and happily I find that Manu's younger son Rishabh. who is just 09 years old has also shown a passion for gardening :)
We are visiting my wife's brother Vijay who migrated from Kanpur to Mysuru about 20 years back and now lives withy his family on Mysuru - Coorg Road in a farm house. Vijay is an amazing person for being passionately in love with nature. He developed his love for birds since early childhood which became a passion while growing up. He also keeps and rears pet dogs and grows flowers' fruits and fruits. He now possesses one of the finest collection of birds from distant lands, especially pheasants.Shailey, my wife and I have been visiting Vijay and family in Mysuru very frequently since my retirement from Govt service about 15 years ago to get away from the heat dust and pollution of Delhi where we live. Dehi experienced unprecedented heat waves in April and Vijay continued to becon us to come and spend some days with him to enjoy the cool weather and fruits growing profusely in his farm home. He kept sending us photos of Mangoes, Lichis and Sharifas he was tending wearing woolens while we were sweating in Dilli !
I noticed that Shailey my wife was also yearning to meet and spend time with her only brother and his family. Abhiram and Ankur, our sons were also egging us to go and spend some time with their Bijju Mama .So we finally took a flight to Bangaluru and an AC cab two days back to reach his home after a 5 hours long drive through the lush green surroundings dotted with beauriful temples and restaurants offering South Indian vegetarian and non vegetarian delicasies. We stopped for 30 min on the way to have lunch in " Kamath" a land mark restauranr which offers meals seved on Banana leaves cooked traditionally with the best spices.
It was a long journey but definitely worth it .Vijay had vacated his master bedroom with large double bed and bay windows facing East overlooking the flowers and fruit laden trees to enjoy after waking up.
Vijay has engaged services of “ Devaiyya” a local cook with more than 25 years experience in a Co GuestbHouse owned by a British family. He is a fantastic cook of both veg and non veg delicacies with a pronounced Karnataka flavour. He asked what we would like to have for lunch and dinner. I opted for Drumsticks ( Sahjan) beans curry with made with fresh Coconut and Sambhar rice for lunch 😋
Vijay informed that Mysuru had witnessed incessant rains for almost one month leading to destruction of his home vegetables grown in the back yard and wild grass growth all over. His Mangoes crop was also affected badly.
I am posting a few photos taken with my IPhone 11 and stored on Google photos to illustrate the wide variety of flowers and fruits Vijay is growing in his farm house. He personally wakes up early to feed his birds and keep their cages clean safe and secure, lamenting that he was not getting Malis from the local village to work for him except for one old man Madho. Vijay works personally with his Malis and masons to make sure that they do their best and not while away their time from morning till afternoon .
