Haridra

I am participating in the April AtoZ Blogging challenge and my theme is Plants featured on Indian Stamps. This is my eight attempt at the AtoZ. 

My theme is inspired by an online talk by Daniel L Nikrent of Cornell University, USA held by Maharashtra Vriksha Samvardhini about Parasitic Flowering Plants featured on Stamps. 

I am not a stamp collector nor a fan of stamps. Hence almost all my posts are purely based on research on the internet. I have tried to cross check the info before posting here. Please do share correct info and links to the same in case of discrepancy. 

India Post has a very strong network reaching deep deep into the interiors of the country and I depended on it for news from home when we were posted in far away places.  In this age of smartphones, Internet, how many of us really write letters – snail mail as they are now called? Despite this , I find that new stamps are being issued and we have stamps on diverse topics including Armed Forces, Films, Personalities, Wildlife, Handlooms, Handicrafts, Food and so on.. It is amazing!

Haridra is known to all of us possibly by another name which is Haldi or Turmeric which comes from the Curcuma longa plant of the Zingerberacae family. Its tuber is dried and then processed to make the turmeric powder that is an all-important spice in Indian cuisine. It also has tremendous medicinal value. 

Turmeric leaves are used to wrap various foods like fish, coconut etc and then steamed .This is quite a delicacy and I heavily recommend tasting a turmeric leaf wrapped dish whenever you get the opportunity. Patoli is a sweet dish prepared using these leaves.

India Post released a stamp featuring Turmeric in 1997 of denomination of 5INR. 

Here is another beautiful one of the Himalayan Mini Sunflower of denomination 5INR.

The India Postage Stamps website  has a complete catalogue of stamps. Please click the link to see many many wonderful stamps.

Colnect is a comprehensive portal for Stamp collectors. It gives detailed information about every listed stamp.  Click here for detailed info about Stamps – what is a stamp, types, formats, water marks, perforations and much more. 

We come on the second weekend of the challenge. So we meet again on Monday 11th April for some more beautiful plants on stamps.