The Arboretum walk in NGMA, Bangalore

The gorgeous Manikyavelu Mansion on Palace Road, now NGMA Besides writing, reading and lecturing in Mount Carmel’s College for a few hours, I spend my day leading a sedentary life. But if the event has anything to do with gardening, I stretch myself out of my comfort zone and feel inclined to attend. When the Arboretum walk invite from NGMA plonked itself into my inbox it was a snap decision to go along with my son, as he too enjoys trees and the open spaces. NGMA is just a few doors away from where I lecture at MCC, and we jumped out of the Ola cab and made our way into the fabulous campus, of the National Gallery of Modern Art on Palace Road or the Manikyavelu mansion.

Sculptures displayed on the front lawn So how do I get these invites from NGMA? Well, I am a journalist so these institutions are always looking for exposure. But, the real reason was, I would pass this beautiful young woman on my way to college down Hayes Road and she was walking up to catch her bus to NGMA, on the top of Hayes. Her hellos turned to ‘what time is it?’ looking at my wrist watch, into --do you have a card we must chat! So, here we were for the Arboretum walk, @ 11:30 am on a Sunday morning and the crowd swelled from a few of us, to over 50 mostly older people like me, who love trees. TS Srinivasa a botanist from the IISc, took us around this living out door classroom, with trees that are a growing gift from the past to the future. All the trees were well over 30 to 100 years old in the campus with broad trunks and spreading branches.

TS Srinivasa a botanist from IISC takes us on the walk Srinivasa talked about the history and cultural connections of each species, starting with the False Ashoka. Called the Mast Tree ( Polyanthia longifolia) I am not fond of the tree as the neighbours have them growing infront of their compound and the bats love the fruit, with which they litter our lobby and garden, leaving large black splashes of their faeces across the walls ! But the bole of the trees are straight and strong and were used to make the masts of ships in the past. The outstanding Cassia Grandifolia, is a tree I love from my old Bangalore days. There was one species in the campus -- the Grandifolia, but I have seen several others across Bangalore. We had a beauty in the Chandy’s compound on Hayes Road as kids and I remember seeing drifts of the pink petals floating down the road, when it rained. There are the stunning specimens behind the King George’s statue in Cubbon Park, which have borne the brunt of the Metro coming up so close to them and one has sadly died. In Mount Carmel’s as I lecture there is one stunning specimen just outside the windows, in the impeccably maintained campus.

The mature Rain Tree which has spread it's branches out over at least a quarter of an acre! Srinivasa educated me on the Yellow Trumpet Tree or the Tabebuia spectabilis. I have seen a glorious specimen in the Bishop Cotton’s Girls school, quite different from our specimens - Tabebuia argentia, that we planted on Castle St and Hoskote I wondered at the difference. Like the Tabebuia that we planted, this tree too gets covered in golden yellow flowers before they all fall off and the leaves appear. But the spectabilis is a massive tree and quite spectacular in it’s formation unlike the argentia. We went on to look at the Fern Leaf tree ( Felicium decipiens) which seems to have been planted on the pavements of Residency Road. The tree has a fern shaped leaf and can grow quite large if allowed to. However many in the group were happy to know that it can be planted near a building and will not disturb and foundation and the sewage lines.

A massive Strangler Fig has killed off it's host plant Alongside the Cassia was the Sandalwood tree or the Santalum alhum. I remember the neighbours had one when we were kids and an Army officer and his family lived in the house. One day they chopped the tree growing at the back down as it was in the way and the first thing I did was to take a chunk of the wood to smell it. There was no smell, but much later as the chunk dried the scent of the tree tantalisingly filled our girls room. Today there are tree thieves who roam around the city using electric saws and chopping down mature trees and spiriting them away in vans, as they are so expensive. That’s because they take decades to grow. But he informed us a very interesting development.Sandalwood trees grow very well in the arid regions of Australia and that is where the world’s sandalwood is being sourced for today. Ofcourse one of the men in the audience had to ask, 'must be inferior to ours no?' And promptly was told the trees are of excellent quality and the topic was changed.

TS Srinivasa who made the whole walk so interesting and enjoyable Along the side of the huge Manikyavelu building was a massive Indian Blackberry tree or the Jamun or Eugina jambos. The Jamun is well known for its medicinal properties of all parts of the tree. We have grown up with them in Bangalore spreading their branches across Hosur Road, planted by the British. The tree has been domesticated to grow larger and meatier fruit now, which are sold at premium prices, as half of India is diabetic. We are lucky to get bags of the fruit after we planted five trees in the farm in Hoskote. Not a single fruit is distributed to friends, I eat the lot! Will carry on with a Part II of this blog.