Shiuli

 October. A time which flows in its own way. A time which creates moments, moments of emotions, smells of flower, petrichor of a virgin love. A time of pure bliss, a time for Siuli. if I close my eyes and utter October, that is the first name always come in my mind. A heavenly combination of White petals, orange stem, and Devine smell. It gives a pleasant, sacred, soothing sense to me. Like a soft old favorite cloth which is very general , nothing special but very specially it owe me. Like mother's lap, like embracing by the loved ones.

Sanskrit name of this flower is "Parijat", truly a flower of heaven. The parijata is a divine tree featured in Hindu mythology. The Mahabharata and the Puranas describe the parijata tree, as one of five trees, to have emerged during the legend of the Samudra Manthana. Krishna is described to have battled with Indra to uproot the parijata from his capital of Amaravati and plant it in his own city of Dvaraka. In regional tradition, Satyabhama grew aggrieved when Krishna offered his chief consort Rukmini a parijata flower. To placate her envy, Krishna confronted Indra and had the parijata tree planted near Satyabhama's door. Despite having the tree planted near her dwelling, the flowers of the tree fell in the adjacent backyard of Rukmini, the favourite wife of Krishna, because of her superior devotion and humility.

The tree is the subject of a work named Parijatapaharanamu in Telugu literature, written by Nandi Thimmana, the court-poet of Krishnadevaraya. The poet Kalidasa sings about the flower in his Sanskrit poem Ritu samhara.

However in Latin name of this tree is "sad tree" because because the foliage becomes droopy as blooming flowers fall off during early morning.  I got surprised and sad as well when I first came to know this meaning. Why this beautiful flower's name is sorrow?and I love the tree of sorrow the most? I was becoming superstitious for a moment but then redirected my thoughts; sorrow and pain are the inevitable part of life, nobody can live only in joy but he/she has to face these negative emotions too, we cannot escape in any ways so what if without escaping we accept those pain as it comes, just let the time flows over it and wait to see the sunshine just like "shiuli" does. Through the nights it blooms, when we rest peacefully, cradled in the loving embrace of our dearest ones, they bloom and drop off the morning beautifully, silently, lovingly. I don't see sorrow here, I don't want to see too. it's nothing but beauty of time, probably signifies our life span, could be short but only we can make it worth living.

That's why Shiuli signifies time, the nature and the beauty which I have tried to showcase in this channel with my lens.

That's why Shiuli captured that uncapurbale bliss, unexplainable emotions. with its soft touch I get a sense of serenity. A sense of everything is in place, life is not that harsh. Everything could be beautiful just we need to find it.

This is shiuli, my Childhood emotions, teenage love and matured "prem", Parijat of Kalidas and a bond of without bondage. Let's have that sacred smell once and try to listen a whispering sounds while dropping off in the morning; "O please hold your tongue and let me love".