M.C.Mathew(text and poto)
31 March, 2020
Accepting each other !
There are some sights that capture our attention. It was still dark and visibility was poor. The two birds conversation, sitting on branches at two levels of the same tree. They were silent but engaging each other by looking.
One of the interesting aspects of bird behaviour is the way they relate to each other. It varies between hostility and togetherness.
The species specific behaviour and between species reveal about the comfort level of birds with each other even when birds breach the territorial separation they practice.
I have often watched squirrels and crows chasing away other birds. But these two were accepting of each other.
What might have disturbed all of us is the declining acceptance level between people of tow neighbouring states. With the borders between states were closed due to traffic restrictions, some states are exclusively concerned about protecting their population from importing corona infection from the other states, so much so one state closed its road access by dumping mount of earth on the road. An ambulance carrying a lady could not cross the border to go to a hospital and she died on the return journey.
In a federal set up of multiple states, how important it is to maintain the acceptance level in difficult times. How importune it is to be civil to each other and accommodative of others as much s possible!
M.C.Mathew (text and photo)
30 March, 2020
Sunshine makes the difference
The vegetation receives a brighter look with sunshine at dawn!
That is when nature wakes up to its fullness!
An alcohol dependent person having been dry for a year now, confessed to me that he views himself and the environment differently now, because he has received an optic of clarity!
We can see differently if the light within is revelational.
Our thoughts or biases can impair the inner light. That is why prayer becomes a means to make us open towards God. It is from God we receive the light that is revelational!
M.C.Mathew (text and photo)
A grey Tit waiting for its turn!
A grey Tit is a regular visitor to our garden. It is fond of the bell fruit and it hovers around the tree. It is not comfortable with any human presence around. I waited for 20 minutes today in the hope of catching it pluck one fruit. Its habit is pluck one and fly away to another tree! Another competitor f this fruit is green Barbet! The barbets tolerate human presence!
We need to get familiar with different patterns or styles of others. That is how we become appreciative of others!
M.C.Mathew (text and photo)
Custard apple fruit!
Most of the year the two custard apple trees look bare. But in early summer they have new leaves and flowers. One of the trees has got fruits, although raw now.
When we are engaged with children and families, we need to be deliberately patient! They respond in their time!
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
All in one tree !
The different stages of cashew fruits in our garden.
Does this not suggest that in every group that we belong to, there would be people in different stages of their formation-emotionally, socially, behaviourally, morally, and spiritually! Together we become a working group appreciating and accommodating others different from us.
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
29 March, 2020
Lantana flowers
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
Questions without answer!
This papaya tree is five has old. For three months now, it has no new fruits. The older ones still in the tree are smaller and taste different.
Is it a sickness, a deficiency or a just ageing!
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
Big and small !
One big and another small jack fruit remain closely in touch in the upper part, adjusting their surfaces to each other in a mutually adapting form. Both jack fruits acquired unusual appearance because of this, different from the usual shape and form. The outer contour in the upper part reveals that it was contributed by both the jack fruits.Each jack fruit impacted each other.
In the recent months, there were some instances in the Indian society, which defined the heterogeneity of our society in a way that it disturbed the harmony that existed between different groups in our society.
A society is a community of different sub groups of people who relate, adjust and accommodate each other.
This cohesion in the community is achieved by an approach of 'give and take'!
If we let others benefit from us, they too would be generous towards us.
This was the philosophy of relationship between the management and employees in Tata companies. I remember late, Mr J.R.D.Tata, the doyen of Indian industry, taking the initiative to found the Tata Trust to support social service, a hospital for its employees in Jamshedpur, a retirement benefit for its employees in the nineteen fifties, when all of it were new in India. In fact, it used to be told of Tata companies and Malayala Manorama establishments that these two large organisations would not have industrial strike or slow down, because the management is often generous towards their employees. These two large establishments continue even now the practice of adapting to the needs of their work force. There are other organisations who have a similar adaptability in their ethos. I know that the Christian Medical College, Vellore is one such organisation.
This is mutuality and togetherness for a cause!
M.C.Marhew
Coconut tree flowering
Few weeks ago, I noticed that this coconut tree was about to flower as the shell of the flowers had appeared between the stem and leafy palm branches (photo1)
Two days ago, the flower has appeared breaking forth the shell.
In the third photo, the globular projections on the flower are the coconut fruits in formation.
We planted this coconut tree four years ago and it is still at the ground level with healthy looking palm leaves all around the stem.
Anna and and I watched this sight with delight and gratitude.
Anna wanted to have coconut trees at our height. Then we can pluck the coconuts on our own! It has happened now.
M.C.Mathew (text and photo)
A coffee habit !
Anna and I have had freshly brewed coffee in the morning for thirty years now. One ritual I looked forward to, every morning was to grind the coffee seeds and prepare filter coffee.
Since my by-pass heart surgery six years ago, I have had an irregular heart rate. The irregularity could not be managed by drugs. Dr Oommen George, cardiologist in my meeting with him six months ago suggested that I wean myself off coffee if possible. I continued brewing coffee for Anna, while I changed to tea since then. For two months now, since then my hear rate has decreased and is regular with only a few exceptions. I would have had two or three cups of coffee every daytime then! Now I realise that it was toxic to my heart after the surgery.
Changing a habit is not easy. Now I have one or two cups of tea every day and I manage well. I miss the flavour of coffee, but I still have the aroma of coffee every day while preparing it for Anna.
At one stage I had ten different varieties of coffee seeds including decaffeinated seeds. That was special, because we could brew coffee of our choice each day!
So it is farewell to coffee except when someone serves coffee without checking with me, while visiting a home!
Yes, we can change habits if we feel the need for it!
M.C.Mathew (Text and photo)
Star Fruit
Anna harvested this morning a basketful of Star Fruit (Carambola) from a sapling we planted three ears ago. Although it gave us a few fruits last year, it is full of fruits this year and and it is flowering now (photo 1) for the next crop.
The name of the fruit, star fruit, comes form the star shaped appearance of the slices of the fruit when cut transversely (Photo 6).
It has a mixed taste and can be used for salad, juice, desert, or as a vegetable!
It is ready when it has a golden yellow appearance. When the green colour changes to mild yellow, it is ready to be plucked (photo 5).
We did not have to do much after planting it. It needs no shade. We have not had any insects attacking the plant or the fruits. It is a shrub with multiple stems from the soil growing in a circular fashion spreading its branches widely, which makes it even ornamental to look at.
Plant one if you can find a 5 square feet of space in your garden and it will give you fruits in the third year! It is a tropical plant, but now grows in other countries also.
M.C.Mathew( text and photo)
Birds in our garden this morning!
Just a few birds, I could capture at the golden hour in the morning!
Globally we face an existential threat due to coronal virus infection! The threat to our existence is in the air. Around thirty thousand of our companions have left us!
When I saw the Magpie Robin singing sitting at the edge of a coconut pal leaf, I was reminded of the song that gave a triumphant call at the time of civil rights movement in the USA by Martin Luther King Jr.
We will walk hand in hand...
Truth will make us free......
We are not afraid today, oh, deep in my heart I do believe, we shall overcome some day,
We shall overcome some day...'
Bill Gates in 2015 in his address to his nation, referring to the 1918 influenza epidemic, which killed millions had suggested that the next devastation would not be because of war, but because of a viral pandemic.
So here we are, in the thick of it, with about 40 or so initiatives globally to create a vaccine.
There were four pigeons in our garden this morning...each announcing peace!
M.C.Mathew (text and photo)
A caterpillar !
By the time of the Easter this caterpillar would have become a butterfly, that is my hope.
When dragon flies and butterflies have disappeared from our garden, this sighting yesterday was a reason to wait in anticipation. Even Dulcie joined me to watch this caterpillar gently move around the cluster of leaves. Her subdued growling was an indication of something strange to see!
Sometimes even such a sight is good enough to rekindle hope and expectation.
If there is one caterpillar there would be more of them in the vicinity.
Every time the Magpie Robins came near this bush, there are few of them resident in our garden, I feared for this caterpillar. I had to gently scare the Robins away from this bush lest the caterpillar falls prey to them.
Although the plants become bare without leaves when there are few caterpillars on them, the sight of the colourful butterflies fluttering in the garden sometime soon compensates for the loss.
The loss and gain are delicately balanced in life.
Today being Sunday, those who who normally go to church would spend time at home as common worship is suspended as a precaution to break the transmission chain of corona infection. Not going for a common worship is a loss. But is there a Gian!.
I received a mail yesterday form a friend: 'I am discovering the richness being alone during this stay at home time. In this aloneness, I hear a voice from within in response to the reading of the Scripture or the stanza of hymn'. I did not have such an experience for a long time'.
A small but a significant discovery which hopefully would grow within to feel near to the Spirit within.
A season such as this, lenten season for the followers of Jesus of Nazareth without being able to go to church, a stay at home season for others to protect from corona virus infection, and a period of agony for those who have no job or income... it is a time of much appraisal and disorder.
Even in amidst this, there might be something precious as a starting point for an inner journey of awakening and enlightenment.
M.C.Mathew (text and photo)
28 March, 2020
A stalk of Lily !
One stalk of Lily gives four flowers! They are similar in shape, size and colour, but they flower one after the other over a two or three days.
This pattern fascinates me. The flowering is timed by the plant. There is a remote control resident in its genotype which makes this happen.
To me this is a source of great consolation.
I feel disturbed by parents, who compare their children and expect them to be similar. It is almost against the norm in genetics. Although the science of epigenetic does suggest that the environment has a determining effect on the behaviour outcome in children, it is important to accept the diversity in the temperament and behaviour of children because thy might be differently wired. They are chromosomally inheritors of genes from both parents. Therefore a child represents a confluence of patterns of both parents.
I wish parents can value the diversity of their children and develop a strategy to adapt and respond to each child differently!
I was talking to a teacher who retired recently after twenty years in pre-school education. I raised this issue for her input. Her approach was wise and practical. She welcomes children to her class each year, knowing that she has to engage a spectrum of abilities and behaviour in children. She begins from this premise and by the end of an academic year, she instinctively knows each child and tunes herself to reciprocate to each child at par with his or her level of responsiveness. That was an educational conversation for me. She learned from her children in the class and conditioned her responses to suit their skills, abilities and temperament.
The difference in children hailing from one family is not the real issue, but our patience to learn and adapt!
All the four flowers might be similar in some domains but there are individual differences starting from the time they blossom!
M.C.Mathew (text and photo)
Small flowers from our courtyard !
Anna and I offer these flowers from our garden to honour and greet all those suffering from COVED 19 and engaged in fighting it to bring recovery, control the spread and make a vaccine! We think of them who are now in 185 countries.
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
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