And the Flowers Bloomed!

A garden is meant to be green ,colourful and fragrant. Mine has always been green and would be sometimes colourful , specially in spring when flowers bloom- both invited and uninvited. But for seven long years there was no fragrance-despite the bela and mogra shrubs that I had planted - brought from even far off places like my village which is aflush with flowers ,of all types all year round.

But my bela and mogra unlike their rural counterparts ,definately did not have a profiligate temperament and would be content yielding a few token blossoms - two or three at the most every season , for my supposed satisfaction,which was really a dissapointment.

Then Jasmine died.----last year in March ----- after a protracted illness of diabetes.

We had nursed her lovingly, even when we knew she was on her last lap- after all she had lived her full years . After the vet told us he could do nothing more we had brought her home.

On the last day, and all of her last night , she wanted to remain outdoors .We kept the vigil with her.

A night of grief, the mind and heart choked with emotions not experienced before- we knew she would not last the night - we did not want her to go --we did not know what life would be after she went.

Throughout the night she circumambulated the garden--a hundred times she collapsed on the grass seeking water , which she drank in deep gulps from the chalet our hands proferred . And as if there was nothing more she wanted from this world she would immediately diurate or throw up all she had taken in.

She did not give up , I think because of us. She could have just lay down and rested forever, but she did not ---she kept drinking from our hands - she kept the vigil with us all night .

Next morning she died -we could not part with her --still , so buried her close by , in the shaded green area just outside the boundarywall of our house- the boundary along which my bela and mogras grow.

And then the miracle happened .

A month later -when the season came , the flowers bloomed- hundreds of them--- on my bela and mogra shrubs - so many you could see only white - and the fragrance -- was heavenly .

At last my garden was scented . All season we embraced , nay, inhaled Jasmine's essence .

It is another year since Jasmine died and the flowers have bloomed, in abundance-- on my bela and mogras shrubs. The garden is fragrant.

The miracle continues!