My Trip to India
West Bengal
Stolo podmo the land lotus
Stholo podmo is a kind of flower. Stholo means land and podmo means lotus. In India my grandpa used to pick Stholo podmos from his garden and put them in these beautiful vases and they were first white then in the evening they turned light pink then later in the evening dark pink than at night red then they die. The strange thing is that every day the Stholo podmos were gone in the morning. My grandma said that there is a lady who always comes and take all the Stholo podmos with her stick. Then we didn't think about it much till this week she stopped taking all the flowers!!! That Monday I thought why is she not taking all the Stholo podmos then I remembered that she said that in India they give Dura an Indian goddess 108 Stholo podmos when it is Durga puga representing all her 108 names that say all the good things she does. I don't know what any of them are but anyway so then I thought she must have missed Durga puga so she doing it at home and she needed 108 Stholo podmos so took them from my grandparents house and other houses. She stopped because she got all the 108 Stolo podmos!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Here is a poem I wrote about Stholo podmos:
Stholo podmo is coloring,
White in the morning,
Different shades of pink as the time is ticking,
And red in the evening,
On land a lotus is growing,
108 Stholo podmo to goddess Durga we are giving!
Shiuli the night jasmine
The next flower is Shiuli(night jasmine) Shiuli is a "nocturnal" flower. It is "awake" at night and it falls off/sleeps during the day like the Jasmine. The Shiuli is very delicate it comes on the first night of Autumn. Then really early in the morning they fall down cause of all the strong heat then all the people wake up early to gelt some Shiuli and it keeps happening all over again with a new batch every day till Autunm is over!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The BRIGHT orange stem of Shiuli's makes this beautiful BRIGHT powder and ink!!!There is a song about Shiuli I know and it is called Shiuli phool Shiuli phool it explains all about Shiuli phool (flower) this is the songs meaning :
Shiuli flower Shiuli flower, why do you stay for a little rime are you a mistake? What magic do you have at night, which magic brought you here? Dawn comes again and again and here you fall boo hoo hoo. Why are you so sad, your eyes are filled with (tears,) which language will you say good bye in, what is your magnificent smell! You and Bokul say good - bye
Shiuli flowers fell on the grass
Shiuli's friend Bokul
Kali and Jobha
The next flower is Jobha (Hibiscus) the Hibiscus can stay bloomed pretty-much for a whole year!!! Ma Kali is a Indian god of the killers of the evil. She protects the good by killing the evil. Since she always knows when to come and kill the evil we give her a garland of Hibiscuses that symbolizes how she fought all the evil and the RED symbolizes BLOOD!!!!!!
India's national flower the LOTUS !!!
This is the last but not least flower!!! The LOTUS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The Lotus is the national flower of India!!! It is known for growing in the mud but still look gorgeous!!! There is a goddess called Saraswati, she sits on the lotus flower. She is the goddess of purity and learning. Kind of the same as the lotus!!! I bet that's why she the one who gets to sit on it! Anyway did you know the lotus blossoms 1petal at a time! Every lotus blossoms when it and the sun are completely straight in front of each other!!!
Did you know you tit is not just pretty it also can make medicines out of it!!! Yep that means you can eat lotuses! If you eat it you'll get cooler and n-o diarrhea!!! And if you're like me and you have pigment problems don't fear eat some lotus cookies or something like that !!!
A lotus waiting for just the right moment to bloom
A light pink lotus in bloom
A dark pink lotus peeking out through the leaves
A dark pink lotus showing off it's petals
A white lotus with a pinch of light pink on it's petals taking a dip in the pond
Madhobi
In India my grandpa had these really big bushes of Madhobi next to the gates. I used to pick them up and throw them in the air. Once I came back to America my Bangla song teacher taught me a song about Madhobi. It is called Madhobi
Hottat Kotha Hote Elo, it is about all winter there was no Madhobi and now it is Spring and Madhobi has arrived but now she has to go for Spring is over. (Spring is very short in India.)The leaves shout "no no no don't go, stay with us Madhobi,"and the stars are saying " don't go,come up with us in the beautiful blue sky," Another reason people love Madhobi is that the Madhobi has a beautiful smell like Shiuli.