Potting plants and a Recipe

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When I was a little girl, I used to spend huge parts of my summer vacation with my grandparents. It used to be a visual treat being home. Conveniently anchored a few feet away from our favorite temple, we were eternally embraced with lots of love and an outpouring melange of greenery. Days were slower and quieter back then. Most of the days we feasted on a sumptuous potpourri of the family’s favorites including sweets, pickles, curries and salads, for lunch. My grandmother was a passionate cook with an equally brimming appetite to grow her own vegetables and herbs. I still remember how every afternoon, after a post-lunch nap, she steps into her garden contemplating the ripeness of the jackfruit cluster or inspecting jasmine shrubs under the pepper tree, while I tagged along for a stroll.Years have passed, and her garden has now grown into an unruly thicket.

My family has had a green thumb for as long as I can remember, and it has lingered on for generations. Back in Madras, the first flush of mornings are always spent in the garden, the fresh scent of moist soil coiling around us while we water the vines and ferns. Until recently I always wondered if I would ever be able to continue the tradition; if I have inherited the “green thumb”. I am in a phase of my life where I am venturing deep into that uncertainty. The last few months have been dominated by indoor gardening. A couple of weeks back, on the morning of our 6 month anniversary Sriram and I were still nestled in our bed, talking about ideas to embellish our special day. By the end of the evening, we were sitting with a bag of dirt, earthen pots and baby plants to repot.

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