Simple Pleasures

“Chinna chinna aasai”- I had liked this song from the tamil movie Roza which was a hit, had written down what I thought was the lyrics and had tried to sing the song when there were no one within hearing distance, without knowing what exactly it meant. But I had a vague idea what was being conveyed.

It was about small or simple pleasures in life.

I am lucky to be able to enjoy a few simple pleasures and one of them is the sight and smell of flowers that grow around my house.

The Parijata (night Jasmine)plant, which my wife brought from Bangalore and planted, is now a small tree and has reached our balcony.

We have managed to coax the jasmine creeper to climb up and I intend coaxing it further and making it climb on to the terrace. The creeper is in the process of crossing the balcony and these days there is always a flower or two near the balcony.

Late evenings when the Parijata blooms, the balcony is flooded with the fragrance but the solitary Jasmine works hard to make its presence felt too.

I love to stand there and enjoy the sight of these flowers and the combined fragrance.





I am not overtly religious but I do carry on the tradition of lighting a lamp and placing a few flowers on the idols and photographs of deities that we have with us. Till we shifted to this house our gods had to manage with flowers grown by the roadside or those with in arms distance from the road in my neighbour’s garden. I had no intentions of depriving the owners of their rightful share and was content with what was within my reach and so were our gods. I never resorted to using a stick or a wire hook to claim what was morally not mine. But that is another story. After we shifted here we have planted plenty of flowering plants and I get many varieties of flowers in good quantities.

I love the sight of flowers collected in the mornings for the purpose and it feels good to see the gods adorned with those flowers.





Talking of which, reminds me of DVG.

Gidadi nagutiha hu prakruti sakhanige chanda
Madadi mudidiha hu yuvakange chanda
Gudiyolu koduva hu daivabhaktage chanda
Bidigaasu hoovalage mankutimma.

Which I can roughly translate as

The nature lover likes the flower smiling on the plant
The young man loves the flower in his wife’s hair
The devout cherishes the flower adorning the lord
But the flowers only mean a few coins for the lady who sells them.

I have been able to experience and enjoy the first and the third.

As far the second, when I was a young man, I neither had flowers growing nor the sense to buy and put them in my wife’s hair and enjoy the sight. (and I keep hearing about that lapse even after twenty five years.) Now we have lots of flowers growing but I am not young and my wife does not have enough hair!