Tag: Around the city in a MH-12…

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Flawed Beauty? (#ThursdayTreeLove)


This is a view I see very often on my walks on the hills (called Tekdi in Marathi). Recently, I found it difficult to decide if the tree looked more beautiful than the orange glow of the rising winter sun! The twisted trunk and branches ending in arrows pointing skywards won!

But first a little about this plant. It is the Gliricidia sepium (locally called Undirmari) of the Fabaceae family. 

It has been extensively planted on our hills some years ago under a plan to rapidly reforest barren slopes. This non-native took easily to the rocky soil and flourished. It blooms in January each year and the leafless tree looks glorious with pink blossoms. Besides the visual element, its leaves provide oxygen and some folks use its branches as fire wood. I am told that its leaves and bark are useful to keep away rats.

Gliricidia drops its leaves every winter and once the flowering period ends, the  bare branches will spring forth with hundreds of new leaves. They swathe the hills in wonderful shades of green during the monsoon – making it seem like a dense forest!

Here are the flowers up close!
Pink white flowers in racemes
So why have I titled the post as Flawed Beauty?
That is because this exotic plant does not support other native fauna – birds do not nest on this tree and no birds/insects/ animals enjoy its nectar. Nothing grows below these trees so native herbs, shrubs, grasses are slowly disappearing. There have been calls to remove these trees and this particular plantation has drawn criticism from environment activists as well.

Here are some more images..



Trees planted in systematic rows on Pune hills




Lenticels on the bark. The branches grow vertically up and easily help identify the tree

A Gliricidia seen against the morning sky


So would you say this beauty is flawed?

I am participating in Parul’s #ThursdayTreeLove32. Do head over to see some amazing trees from around the world. 
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A Tree In A Temple (#ThursdayTreeLove)

The Ram Mandir in Pune’s Tulshibag is a heritage site and it was constructed during the peak of the Peshwa rule. It was completed in 1761. The temple has stood the test of time and despite huge changes in its surroundings. 


Beautiful as the temple is, it was the Muchkunda tree growing in the courtyard that caught my eye.. It has a magnificently gnarled trunk (is that possible) and its roots seemed to have surfaced and uprooted some of the surrounding tiles. I have no idea if the Muchkunda is as old as the temple but it has certainly seen many a monsoons…







Muchkunda or Pterospermum acerifolium belongs to the Sterculiaceae family and is also called Kanak Champa in some parts of India. It can be easily recognised by its typical peltate leaves and flowers that are intensely fragrant and look like a peeled banana!  

Notice the leaf shape and the flowers. This image of a Muchkunda located elsewhere

Restoration works at the site have included creating a base of stones around the tree but I am not sure I really like that grey structure. Here are some more images


The newly restored temple and the Muchkunda Tree

Looking up!

Research has revealed that the Pterospermum acerifolium has some mythological importance as well. You can read about it here and here. 


If you ever get a chance to visit the Tulshibag in Pune, do not forget to admire the magnificent Muchkunda.


I am participating in Parul’s #ThursdayTreeLove31. It is a photo feature posted on the second and fourth Thursday of every month. Head over there to see some amazing trees from around the world!

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Golden (#ThursdayTreeLove)

Salai, Pune, Tekdi



This is a Boswellia serrata of the Burseraceae family (locally called Salai). In the above image, the golden glow is due to the morning sunlight on its fading (hence golden yellow) leaves in the autumn. The hills in Pune have many Salai and its easily recognised by its peeling pale coloured bark. It blossoms in January though the flowers are not very conspicuous. The tree exudes an oleo-gum-resin which is said to have medicinal properties, as is the tree bark. 

Here is the same tree in the monsoon – isn’t it a glorious transformation?? 

The following image shows the peeling bark. If you can zoom in, its possible to see a greenish layer beneath the yellowish papery peel.




Fall colours in the colder climates are a much sought after touristy delight, one that is high on my wish list. The deciduous trees in my city also display changing leaf colours in the autumn which are just as beautiful.  


Have you noticed leaves turning golden in November every year?


I am participating in Parul’s photo initiative #ThurdayTreeLove. This is my contribution to #ThursdayTreeLove21

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Baobab (#ThursdayTreeLove)

Baobab, Wai, Adansonia digitata



This massive apparently dry tree is none other than the Baobab (Adansonia digitata) of the Bombacaceae family. It simply demanded attention and the three of us holding hands together to form a chain could not completely encircle its girth!  


Its startling feature is a thick trunk and combined with the palmate leaves, identification is fairly simple. The trunk stores water and the tree loses all its leaves during the dry seasons. The flowers are white and bell shaped and bloom at night. They are most likely to be bat-pollinated.  


Baobabs are found in several parts of the world. I have spotted three in Pune but the photo above is from a place called Menavali near Wai in Maharashtra. 

The tree can grow to be really really old and the hollow massive trunk of one such tree in Zimbabwe is said to be able to shelter 40 people! Whoa!! 


In his book ‘Videshi Vruksha’, Prof SD Mahajan mentions a Baobab in Hyderabad that has a diameter of 5 m and is referred to as ‘हाथियों का पेड”. There is grove of several  Baobab trees near Mandu in Madhya Pradesh as well.


In fact, the Baobab finds a mention in the list of Baobab species in the Landmark Trees of India. Though an introduced species in our country, it seems to have flourished here to the extent that it seems like an indigenous species. 


Here is an image of an old Baobab in Pune that grows in the Savitribai Phule Pune University. The tree had collapsed since the trunk was hollowed by some infestion but as you can see, it had not died… The image is not very clear, but it does give a general idea.

Pune, Baobab



Have you seen a Baobab tree? Is there one growing in your city? 


I am participating in Parul’s photo initiative #ThurdayTreeLove. This is my contribution to #ThursdayTreeLove20 

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Lord of the Files

We purchased our home quite a few years ago, a time when computers were not an integral part of the government machinery. As was the norm, the registration papers were retained by the Municipal authorities and owners retained photocopies. There was a central office that looked after registrations of the entire city. With burgeoning real estate, and scores of property registrations every day, one can only imagine the number of documents that had piled up. Where and how well were they stored were questions best left unasked.


I guess, the task of storage was eventually just too much and the Municipal Corporation decided to digitise the documents. This meant that owners could now collect their documents after producing the original registration receipt. We were happy as the property file with us would now be complete with original documents. The only problem was that in the interim 15 odd years, the procedure had been decentralised and we had no clue where to begin.

Inquiries got us redirected from office to office, table to table in true bureaucratic fashion. After many such fruitless searches, we landed at the correct place. Yay!! A pan chewing, dour faced man took our receipt and disappeared into a cavernous room and emerged after an eternity.


“नही मिला सहाब. १० दिन बाद आईये “
(Could not locate it Sir, come after 10 days)


A shrewd man that he was he had already guessed that we were from the Services.


Having assured us that he would locate the file, we returned hopefully 10 days later. Again he made a prolonged ‘search’ of his store room only to return empty handed.


“अभी नाही मिला . १० दिन बाद आना ” he informed without any emotion.
(Still not found,come after 10 days)


My husband is a stickler for going by the book. And he is a patient man. He decided to give it another 10 days. At the third visit, there were others too waiting to get these precious files. When the Lord reemerged from his search, he had two of them in his hand. Every one surged expectantly towards the desk, but luck was not with us.


“8 दिन बाद” he said in the same expressionless voice.
(After 8 days)


The conversations were getting briefer as some folk lost their tempers. Couldn’t blame them really, one of them was on his fourth trip each time taking a day off for this purpose.


A Peon explained that they had to first check if digitisation was complete and then locate and bring the file. All this takes time and entails a lot of work, he said with a wink.


Now we had already been cautioned that such jobs needed the owner to give incentives to the concerned person for his efforts! After all, he lorded over the files, looked after them, protected them from termites, water seepage, theft etc till the careless owners turned up to claim their original documents. A mammoth task indeed for a poorly paid government worker.


The file claiming procedure turned into a battle of patience and wills. The Lord of the Files on one side and a soldier on the other. My husband punctually showed up on the date prescribed by his Lordship and each visit lasted a couple of hours at least. 


This went on for about four months. He had visited all the cafes and street food joints in the vicinity and was now an authority on which one offered the best tea or sugarcane juice, which fans were serviceable in the office, which spot offered the maximum cell phone coverage and so on… 


Soon tempers showed signs of fraying and patience was wearing very thin…

Eventually, the 12th visit, was clincher. He deposited a dusty file with yellowing frayed papers in my husband’s hands.


“मिलगया “
(Got it)


And the Lord of the Files actually smiled.
Patience Pays.
😉

BARATHON
This is my post for the BAR-A-THON by Blog-A-Rhythm and the theme for June 26th 2017 is Lord of the Files. 
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