Sitting in the veranda, Visalakshi fastens the garland of pogadapulu. Smelling the flowers and measuring the length of the garland intermittently, she twists the thread around the flowers to fasten them together; as if fastening her very mind, her wide-open eyes are riveted to it. Once in a while raising her head, she stares at the gate. Isn't it sheer stupidity—after all, if he is coming, can she not hear the sound of the gate? At the same time, she cannot stop looking for him, can she? The reflection of her anxiety that he might come before she finishes the garland flutters in her eyes.

There is a reason behind her anxiety: Punnamma, the regular flower girl, supplies her all mundane flowers—never a flower like punnagam, parijatham, virajaji, davanam, nor even a maruvam—nothing of beauty; that too, despite her telling that her husband had asked her not to take such flowers of no beauty. Would she listen? No. She would bring whatever she could lay hands on and Visalakshi would continue to buy. He was, of course, indifferent to what flowers she bought or wore in her hair. Yet, his mere staring at the flowers that she put on and gently patting on her head was enough, for it transformed all the flowers that she tucked in her hair into parijatam flowers emitting their sweet fragrance. It simply entranced her whole body. Such was her craze for flowers! In her childhood, she had roamed around flower gardens all day like a green snake. Every day, quiet early in the morning, she and auntie's Kamala used to go to Janardhanswamy's temple and collect flowers in their skirts from the pogada tree that stood like a tower among the oleander plants behind the mandapam1. No amount of collection of pogada flowers that were drenched in dew ever satisfied them. How could they be? Worrying that the pujari's2 daughters may collect all the flowers, they used to go to the temple well before the pujari's daughters woke up and return with lots of flowers in their skirts. Well, whenever all those sweet memories strike the mind, they evoke a smile.

Commonwealth Literature Journal, Pogadapulu, Mundane Flowers, Parijatam Flowers, Pogada Flowers, Oleander Plants, Visalakshudu, Visalakshi, Telugu Linguistics, Telugu Literature.