The morning aroma !

These jasmine flowers in our courtyard flower all the time of the year.  There is a pleasant aroma in the air reaching upto our sit out in the morning. 

Women in rural south India use these flowers to adorn their hair, make flower decorations in front of the house and float them in bowl of water inside a room to receive its fragrance. 

These are delicate flowers. If we were to shake the stem, the flowers would fall off. They last for a day or so in the plant. The fragrance is most when the buds are just open. This is a poor man's flower. A foot long flowers stringed together used to be available for one rupee earlier, which is now two or more depending on the season.

The bushes of these flowers are cultivated in acres of land which do not have access for water irrigation. With all the markets and shops shut for three weeks now, acres of land with flowers were not plucked and were allowed to fall off. There was a video clipping of acres of land looking like a white carpet with the flowers on the ground. The women would normally pluck them early in the morning while it is still dark to get them ready for the market. Most flower markets are open form 4 am.  It is the women who string the flowers together to make the garlands which are sold in markets, bus stops, outside temples, etc. 

My mother used to take a bunch of these flowers every day to the school, where she was teaching to give to her colleagues, who liked to keep them on their hair. During holidays, two teachers not too far from us, used to send their children to collect flowers from our home for their mothers.

Now that we have buttercups in another part of the garden, and jasmine on the other side, most of the hedge looks white and pretty when the flowers are in full bloom. 

There is a romance reattached to these flowers. If a boy were to give a girl a few jasmine flowers and the girl receives it, it is a sign of the spring of a love affair.  

One elderly women who wore the flowers on her hair once told me that women wear this flower on the hair to remember their husband's love. I do not give much credence to it!

To us the jasmine flowers bring each morning a rich look to the garden and plenty of aroma!

M.C.Mathew (text and photo)