The Jasmine days ~ scented summer nostalgia
Vetha Sampathkumar shares her nostalgic memories from childhood and about the art of stringing flowers.
The momentous years of my life! Summer vacations in the Jasmine fields of my grandmother’s village. When I finished my exams and visited her, she would fold her hands to take away dristi to protect from any evil that may befall me and would say, ‘Our auspicious little girl has come!’
Summers are the flowering period for Jasmines and the plants yield tons of smiling Jasmines. I’m indebted to these beautiful flowers for making my memories serene and heavenly fragrant. Out of all others in the family, who go to flower harvest at 3 am, only I had the honour of sleeping till 5 am. The birds would wake me up and I had to befriend the frog in the roofless bathroom, covered with knitted coconut spines!
Waking up that early will certainly make you very hungry, I bet! I would fill half of my belly with the fermented rice or ragi water they left for me (what science calls probiotics)Then I put on my little gown, carried my special basket and joyfully went to the field. By the time I reached the field, the mature Jasmines would have been completely harvested.
After reservation for prayers and the ladies in the family, those flowers are ready to be marketed to local flower shops and attar factories.
We then have our breakfast, after which they again go to the field to water the plants, while we children swing in the big banyan tree or have a shower in the water pumps. When the sun becomes scorching in noon, people return and make us lunch and go to sleep.
The dusk is the best time in villages! They take out the Jasmines from the pots and start stringing them, while singing some songs which admire these flowers. My grandma uses her hands, while my aunt uses her legs, both string them long while my sister who was a teenager then strings it in a circular shape, with other coloured flowers in between. It was considered to be stylish those days! She would look angelic in her traditional daily wear, half-saree, with oiled and plaited long hair, beautified by her circular Jasmines!
I remember my grandma decorating my little ponytail with those long strings. She has taught me to string them too, but in my small hands, the previous flowers would drop while knotting the next ones.
Years passed, keeping me busy enough to forget jasmine stringing. Now, the lockdown has made me look back at the past and I started learning to string jasmines. I mastered the art in two months- it was as if nothing was really forgotten.
Since the last time I visited my grandma, I felt nothing has changed, except the Jasmine fields replaced by sesame, whose white flowers reminded me of those jasmines. I gratified my sister and aunt with the flowers I stringed, equalizing my Karma (duty).
The privileged frog in the bathroom must be the great grandchild of the one I befriended earlier, I thought and smiled with happy tears!
Text & Images: Vetha Sampathram for Nirmisu Design Studio
