Flowers of My Garden

Like most houses in Goa do, ours had a modest little garden too. My mother planted different types of flower plants in it. She fetched water from the nearby well, watered the plants, trimmed them and planted new ones once in a while. As a young boy I had my own set of plants that I tended to. Every morning when I woke up I would go to the garden to admire and have a close look at the fresh blossoms and look for any new buds. During the rainy season, in one corner of the garden there grew a creeper with beautiful tiny star-shaped red flowers. These were my favourite. It seemed to grow at a rapid pace each day keeping up with my anxiety to find its way to the other side of the house. I had tied a string from one side of the house to the other, just under the eaves drop, for this fine-leaved creeper to get a hold on it. I just couldn't wait for the buds to turn into flowers.

Each village had about five communal wells. Fortunately, my house was located very near to one of the wells. These wells provided us with crystal clear natural water for drinking, cooking, washing clothes, bathing, watering the trees around our house and plants in our garden. Winding narrows paths lead to the well. Before sunrise I would be wakened by the noise of copper pots as they were placed on the ledge of the well. The rims of the wells had hollows in them to hold the pots steady. Water was drawn from the well by using a smaller copper pot that was used to fill the larger copper pot. When I was very young this well did not have a pulley. It was installed in recent times.

The common greeting in Konkani : ‘Deu Boro Dis Dhium’ (May God give you a good day) were the first words of the morning to one’s neighbours who came to fetch water from the village well.