Natonchabi * Pink baby rose * rosa multiflora
Pretty flowers that happily bloom in clusters and tend to be gregarious rapidly spreading its branches along fences. For some reasons, this pretty flower is not valued and not particularly cultivated but grows more like a wild flower. with an infamous name as natonchabi , the beautiful blossom is quite underrated.
©Ingallei
A mobile street vendor during Diwali
These small mobile shops make rounds in the neighbourhood carrying small items: little sweets, hair clips, ribbons, toys, etc. Around diwali, they look quite festive with flowers and other items to welcome the festival of light.
the red blossoms of lam nongmangkha; photo: ©Rekha Konsam
Not a very clear picture but nonetheless, this was my one and only sighting of lam nongmangkha – the cousin of orange blooms of nongmankha which I had posted earlier. I should mention that it might not be rare but that I am in fact a lazy explorer of plants. This was captured at Ita Fort, Arunachal Pradesh.
Nongmangkha
A nongmangkha bush grows at the gate of our house. If I remember right, it is at least twenty years old and has now grown into a nice little bush. In March, the dark green bush becomes tinted with amber colour as it blossoms in abandon attracting bees. The hues of amber, golden yellow, mustard yellow, orange are some of the colours that I have come to associate with March. Read more about it here
© Ingallei
hill glory bower * kuthapmanbi
Caught this ovely beauties while walking around the campus of Rajiv Gandhi University in Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh. It grew wild in bushes everywhere inside the campus. I was drawn by the fragrance which was something like that of the honeysuckle. It had big leaves and the bushes were about five feet tall. The white flowers with deep pink tints in the middle from where the whiskers emerges bloomed in abandon all over the campus. It was a lovely good morning greeting to start the day!
© Ingallei
Nobab Ametpa: Pomela Salad, a Manipuri recipe; photo: ©Ingallei
Winter is a time to enjoy the sun and what better way than to enjoy the afternoon with a plate of juicy nobap (pomelo) with the evening sun on your back! Ah yes! Those were idyllic winters spent in the company of friends and family in Manipur.
Pomelo is a citrus fruit readily available in the winter season in Manipur. In the native tongue it is called nobab and is available in two colours – translucent (or white ) and the pink (or red to the native eye). We had two plants in our garden – one of each colour. The fruit is big. An easy way to peel it is to make incision to a depth of about three-fourth of an inch into the fruit and draw slices from the stalk to the head. The incision would cut through the thick cover but would not be enough to cut the inside of the fruit. The next step is to break it open from the head and remove the cover slice by slice. Make sure to remove the soft white insides of the cover before working on the fruit pulp. It tends to lend a slightly bitter taste.
For the garnish, add salt to taste, roasted chillies (one or two), toasted gram/pea flour and toasted pounded perilla seeds. The last two ingredients can be prepared in advance and stored in bottles. Sugar is optional and I usually avoid it as I have a bias for the sweet taste of the fruits matured on the trees. All you need to do is slightly crush the chillies with salt and toss all the ingredients together. And it’s ready!
cutting open the pomelo
shredded pomelo with the garnish: toasted gram/pea flour, toasted & pounded perilla seeds, salt, roasted red chillies
©Ingallei
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