Citizen Rose.....

Gardens, like Life, are never about landscaping and show.    Or an obsession with everything being photogenic.

Like each of us,  the flowers that grow along , say, walking paths,  are a diverse mixture of color, flower frequency, physical appearance, proclivity to bending, stubbornness, and ability to slog.  Like each of us, some of them are social, and some reek superiority and some simply pretend.  Some simply face whatever fate has in store for them, keep working with hope and no expectations , and cheerfully rejoice when by chance , something nice happens.

And they all have, what can only be called a human background. A growth story.  

My friend Zephyr Nag clicked this photo of a rose , as it bloomed and emerged from the hoi polloi greens  , to one side of her early morning walking path.

Why ?  She says, I have the reason spot-on.    :-)

It's tough facing masses of crotons and ferns, smug in their cutting mobility and wanderings. Sometimes, it is difficult facing the jasmines climbing high on society bowers, and looking down in superior fragrant attitude. And so often , it is about the unruly bougainvilleas crowding life spaces, flaunting their variety and fake combinations claiming unity in "color". And so she sits, quiet and busy in the hedges, watching so many go by, and quietly prepares for her day, sharing with her "bud"dies whatever the Earth grants her. Yes, it is a thorny life. Sometimes, too dry, because the sky often controls its tears. But hope is eternal, and she struggles her way out a healthy pink from her efforts at exercise trying to emerge from the mass of greens; looks up at the Sun, and smiles, and says to her "bud"dies, " See, waiting has its rewards; I knew Zephyr would finally come this way on her morning walk."..

काही हरहुन्नरी रंगीबेरंगी क्रोटन्स, आपल्याच नक्षीत कौतुकात बुडलेली पाने, आणि "पाय टेकिन तिथे चिकटीन" अशी मातीला धमकी . आणि मग कधी कधी कमनीय प्रकारे वेलावर चढणारी आणि सुंदर श्वास सोडत ललनांच्या प्रिय गज्र्यांचे स्वप्न बघत एकात एक मिसळणारी, इतर सर्वांकडे बघून पाकळी उडवणारी जाई जुई ... कधीतरी एका बेशिस्त क्षणी कशाचीही फिकीर न करता जागेवर आपला कब्जा करण्यासाठी लोकशाहीचे नाटक करत सर्व रंग एकात एक मिसळून अतोक्रमण करत सर्वत्र बेताल पसरणारा गुंड बोगंविल्ला ... अशीच एका बाजूला ती दिवस काढते , पानांमध्ये सावलीत रेलून जमिनी तून जे मिळेल ते गोड मानत आपल्या सह कळ्याना त्यातला वाटा देत, राहील त्यासाठी देवाचे आभार मानत हळु हळु मोठी होते, आणि आपल्याच भविष्याच्या पाकळ्यात गुंडाळली जाते . जग हे काटेरीच , आणि कधीकधी अवकाशही कोर्डे अश्रू ढाळ्ते . पण तिने आयुष्यात खूप काटे बघितलेत, सहन केलेत , आणि प्रबळ इच्छाशक्तीच्या जोरावर ती हळु हळु हिरव्या पानांच्या पडद्यातून, अतीव श्रमाने चेहर्यावर गुलाबी लेउन उमलत बाहेर येते , सकाळच्या ताज्या सूर्याकडे बघून हस्ते आणि म्हणते , " कळ्यांनो , वाट बघत काम करत राहायचं …. आपल्याला मनातल मिळतं ! मला माहित होत आज सकाळी झेफीर मला भेटायला यॆइल आणि फ़ोटो काढेल …."