Pep‘per’ Talk

Basil, carrot, chillies, coriander, fennel, fenugreek, garlic, ginger, mint, pumpkin, tomato, turmeric – check! My confidence swelling with each baby step in experimentation with growing my own vegetables in our 8 ft x 1 ft box grilled window space, I decided to raise the bar a notch higher – exotic cultivars which are quite fussy …

Weedout Doubt

(Preamble: This plant has grown up with my carrot plants on the fringes of the planter. I cannot explain why – despite it so evidently not being a carrot – I did not weed it out, but fed and cared for it just like any other plant. And now that the barely two inches tall …

Bird, Decollated!

Two days into his stay at the farm he knew something was amiss. Each morning he had woken up to a crisp cool dawn of the early spring days, the air redolent with the heady bouquet of the hillside blooms and the mild rays of sunshine diffused through a curtain of thin fog that hung …

The Pumpkin Chronicles

Though Dr. Ian Malcolm’s profound and by now iconic assertion “Life, uh, finds a way” in Jurassic Park was in reference to the survival and proliferation of genetically engineered dinosaurs, it is not wrong to associate this statement with the real world where millions of species fight for survival against each other and more often …

Self-be-leaf

(Tanka of an enlightened leaf) Some form muddy poolsyet some others run down drainsblessed to make few pearlsthose that run off lose their selfthe resilient shine forth Water sustains liferelentless my thirsty rootswhat worth then these pearlsan ephemeral miragenot ego let deeds make me [The tiny, newly unfurled leaf of my Colocasia plant juggles with …

Drenched

Sparrows juveniledelightful their first drizzlesoaking up in gleewell preened contour feathers drydowny feathers soft and warm Fun frolic endedas the heavens opened upbabies now wet throughwise and sheltered they wonderwhat new lessons life will give [Starring: my daily breakfast companions – house sparrows (Passer domesticus) K1, female and K2, male] – Narendra Nayak © 2021

Transient

Flowers. A fragile, fragrant, flamboyant, fetching, fascinating fragment of Mother Nature’s design to facilitate perpetuation of life. We all have our favourites – buttercups, carnations, chrysanthemums, daffodils, dahlias, daisies, lilies, orchids, peonies, petunias, roses and tulips – which are a welcome, though ephemeral digression from ordinary subsistence of the colourless commonplace. But human avarice is …

The Drunken Leaf

(A leaf expresses in Tanka upon a delightful drizzle) A little splatterI bow with a grateful heartrunning off my skintrickling down to the parched eartha dampness that kindles hope The blessings do poursoaking my soul in delighta warm cool wetnessit seeps into loamy depthsto rise in my surging veins – Narendra Nayak © 2021

Esse

(My first attempt at Tanka) Embellishing greensa sprinkle of radiancethese gems from heavenbringing succour to our souldrizzle of vitality [My pumpkin (Cucurbita pepo) patch continues to feature in my odes as the curious tendrils reach out to relish the cool wetness of the unseasonal drizzle.] – Narendra Nayak © 2021

A Seed-n-Tree Life

Dormant lies within,as a formidable vault,a blueprint of life. Amorphous of self,coded profound yet concise,precursor of life. Stoic and acute,quietly all along aware,the purpose of life. [It took about 4 to 5 weeks for my Butterfly Pea (Clitoria ternatea) pods to go from tender green to dry brown before I could harvest these for the …