So - thank you for the kind words form both Gregg and Phil - encouraged by these I will endeavour to carry on.
There were an amazing amount of gardens in Calcutta: the Horticultural, Eden, and my favourite the Botanical with the amazing banyan tree with its branches reaching into the earth to create new roots. At the time I was enamoured of a book caller "the Little Prince" and I thought the banyan tree would have served him well on his home planet instead of the encroaching baobab..
The Horticultural Gardens were where we took the dogs - Winnie and Aizu for their twice daily walk - they could run on the grass and generally frolic to their heart's content. They were too small to present much of moving target and met other dogs amiably and moved on - as much as anything because they we were firmly convinced they were human too.
Green spaces finally gelled for me when I read Marvell for the first time,
"annihilating all that's made into a green though in q green shade"
and so i often went there to write - nothing any good but my post modernist soul needed the open air and the green of a garden.
The Eden gardens were a legacy of two extraordinary sisters who come to India with their brother and used their education tor record in paint and prose what they experienced. It is from them that we such a clear picture of the India of the raj,
How sad the think the there will be no international cricket in the Eden Garden stadium this year. In their garden stood a Burmese Pagoda given to them as a present. I hope it still stands there today - anachronistic and totally fitting with all the other dichotomies of the city.
I would give much to walk in any of those gardens again - to annihilate all thought to a' green shade'
There were an amazing amount of gardens in Calcutta: the Horticultural, Eden, and my favourite the Botanical with the amazing banyan tree with its branches reaching into the earth to create new roots. At the time I was enamoured of a book caller "the Little Prince" and I thought the banyan tree would have served him well on his home planet instead of the encroaching baobab..
The Horticultural Gardens were where we took the dogs - Winnie and Aizu for their twice daily walk - they could run on the grass and generally frolic to their heart's content. They were too small to present much of moving target and met other dogs amiably and moved on - as much as anything because they we were firmly convinced they were human too.
Green spaces finally gelled for me when I read Marvell for the first time,
"annihilating all that's made into a green though in q green shade"
and so i often went there to write - nothing any good but my post modernist soul needed the open air and the green of a garden.
How sad the think the there will be no international cricket in the Eden Garden stadium this year. In their garden stood a Burmese Pagoda given to them as a present. I hope it still stands there today - anachronistic and totally fitting with all the other dichotomies of the city.
I would give much to walk in any of those gardens again - to annihilate all thought to a' green shade'
Have you seen this??
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9YUya1Xgkc