Tag: Around the city in a MH-12…

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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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Honouring Our Soldiers

It was quite a while ago, that I began a post about streets in my city named after women. That was inspired by a BBC article “Are our street names sexist?” 


This idea sort of germinated into yet another one namely, finding out how many streets in my city and outside of its Cantonment are named after soldiers… Outside the Cantonment is the key as that is the area where most roads are named after soldiers…


Thus began my search and for now my list has only five names… I know there will be many more and this list will be updated as and when I learn about them. So those of you who do come across such street names do let me know…


The list is in no specific order… 
Here goes:


1. Flying Officer Sudhir Pawar Path
2. Shaheed Colonel Prasanna Gore Path – in Sahakar Nagar
3. Capt Vishwasrao Himmatbahaddur Chavan Path – in Navi Peth
4. Sqn Ldr Sureshchandra Bhagwat Path – in Model Colony
5. Kai Col Suryakant Pandit Path – in Model Colony
6. Second Lieutenant Shrikant Rege Path – in Model Colony
7. Subhedar Namdev Jadhav Path – Ashok Nagar 


Waiting to hear from you all!
Take care!
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