Thursday, February 24, 2011

The garden of five senses....

We visited the Garden of five senses last Sunday .  The annual flowers festival was going on there and we could not stop ourselves from going there. A friend had suggested this plac long back and the announcement of this festival was a nice excuse to go and see this wonderful place . The metro rail can take you there , saket is the station which leads you to the sprawling garden of five senses ....after a good walk for 10 minutes , if not more . Wear your sneakers if you are taking the metro.

Take the tickets first , 20 rupees for adults . The ticket counter looks so serene...i like these stone walls , and wavering stairs...


These pendulous plant arrangements were showcased right outside .... sedum , ferns , bryophyllum , jade plant , candy tuft and a few more....


Take a closer look at the flowering bryophyllum all around a globe...



See how a bed of flowering plants adorns the chabootra ( the platform made for protection of the trunk as well as a place to sit under the shade of a tree) of a semal tree...


The semal tree from a distance...notice the cone shaped thorns on the trunk , a couple of pink flowers and one lone fruit hanging from the branches... can you find them ?


See the thorns of another semal tree , with the chabootra adorned with a bed of flowers again......the folk drummers playing in the background....


While there were almost all the seasonal flowers on display , in pots propped with thin bamboo sticks , i will show you the landmarks of this garden... the elephants surrounded by water bodies...... and cycus groves...


There was a get away with undulating pathways lined with stone pillars.... giant birds perched over them... besides bamboo groves...


Some mehraabs breaking the symmetry... stone walls...


There are some bronze sculptures , probably depicting the five senses .... I always need to observe art work in a peaceful atmosphere.... there were too many people for my comfort...this is the only frame where no one ( except me) is there , there are more of these sculptures...


 So it will take me another visit to see those sculptures in detail.... I liked this upside down tree sculpture too...the roots facing the sky...and the tree apex going inside the earth...


A large earthen urn .... see the teenage girl , quite tall herself , and compare the size of the urn....



Another installment which intrigued me was this upward moving spiral with bells hanging....a huge structure and i can imagine when there are strong winds ..or God forbid ..an earthquake comes....



Liked the wavering pathways.........


And these earthy lamps lining the pathways....


Want to see some more pathways? ....leading to thatched houses....like i used to draw in my drawing book when i was a kid...


See another little home surrounded with a garden....I have two of these terracotta houses perched on my 'rock garden in the making' ... same sizes and i am getting ideas...


Take a closer look , the house ( actually a tein house) boasts of  a pond and a swimming pool too...


This one looks like another locality , the safety hedge and ceramic houses ... different fauna to adore the garden...




Another house located in a dessert island...


With real gold fish swimming in the 'shell pond'...


A lonely hut of a rishi muni...minimalistic and serene...


This one looks kischy ...


let me show you a nice bed of purple lantana.... I tried to include those saplings of Cannabis in the frame too...


the orange lantana in my garden gives e so much pain , controlling it ...the spiky shrub that refuses to go away....but i like the aromatic whiff around the plant... the purple lantana is less aromatic...or so i felt there... another purple breeze of lantana...


And a nice drooping canopy of Bauhinia ( kachnaar)... with the seed pods trying to touch ground...


There were so many seasonal flowers on display , all the possible colours ... rioting the green environs of the garden ....

This one i shot for the colour contrast ...a pleasing parting note....



Bright orange against pristine white.....a lone Gazania drooping towards a bunch of Candytufts...ready to pose for me...

movement immobilised in stone....

         "MOVEMENT" (Shaking, Falling, Bouncing, Jumping, Curling, Sagging,...)
 The ultimate sign of movement , the wheel , whose discovery gave a fast pace to human civilization.....


 Set in stone , immobilised for ever...

This picture is from the Sun Temple of Gwalior , yes, there is a sun temple in Gwalior too.

This temple disappointed me hugely when i went there having high expectations , having seen and admired the konark sun temple years ago.

This is a modern temple build on the lines of the ancient sun temple of konark , the place is quite peaceful , surrounded with greenery and birds but it cannot match the aura and vibes of the ancient konark sun temple.... the visit was a huge disappointment actually...