Turbulence at the Lake

Scene depicting the turbulence at the Loktak Lake: Choreographed by CYCA Khurai

A moment from the play ‘Poubilai’ depicting the turbulence at the lake caused due to overt human activity that wreaks havoc to aquatic life leading finally to the emergence of the monstrous Poubilai sleeping in the belly of the lake from its deep slumber. He, in turn, turns his ferocity towards human kind as vengeance.

A production of the CYCA Khurai, the play was staged at the National Museum, Delhi  at the inauguration of the exhibition on ‘One Object Exhibition: Poubilai‘ organised by the Bhopal based institute of Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangralay (IGRMS).

©Ingallei

A hardy little plant

Portulaca Grandiflora

Another one from my Mashoodpur visit. I found this hardy little plant nonchalantly flowering among the stones and bricks of the wall between two houses in this little urban village of Delhi.

I am not able to recall its name in my native language but i used to have this in my flower-pot sometime back. It is quite a perfect kind of plant to be suspended in those hanging pots. It has bigger flower – bigger than the one in this picture which is in fact smaller than that of an oxalis bloom. The ones in my flower spot had similarly given miniature versions of the bloom just like this one but its parent plant had bigger blooms. I wonder if it has to do with soil.

According to the flowers of India, this is the portulaca grandiflora also called the moss rose. I always thought portulaca was another plant (apparently i had mistaken it for purslane). the interesting thing is how this flower is quite the time-keeper: in Bangladesh it is known as time-phool (time flower),  in Hindi it is called nau-baje or 9 o’clock as it flowers around this time of the day and in Vietnam it is called 10 O’clock.

It must be quite a punctual flower to be given such a time-specific name! I wonder what it would have been called before the clock was invented!

©Ingallei