Botanical Album

Normally, whenever my son goes away from home, either for work or on expeditions, do I get new ideas and thoughts to keep my mind occupied. Since my childhood I have been fascinated by the plant world wondering at their seemingly infinite varieties, species, colors, forms, shapes and their almost universal presence all over the planet. I loved playing with trees and shrubs sang songs to them, caressed the leaves and treated them as my best pals. Since fresh leaves, flowers or any part of a plant, doesn’t stay green and fresh for long and soon wilt if plucked, I wanted to build up my own botanical album containing dried leaves, flowers, etc in order to showcase the immense variety of this unique world. This thought turned into action around the year 1995 when my son had been deputed abroad for a long duration and I had to keep myself gainfully occupied.

I was in Mumbai then and I begin my search within the public parks and roadside flowerbeds near my house. Gradually I widened my net and started visiting other areas, poking and peering through bushes and nooks in search of common and uncommon specimens. Steadily my collection grew. I had no idea how to process leaves and plants for preservation; neither did I know of ‘herbarium’ paper. I followed my own process; which to me seemed logical – clean the fresh specimen thoroughly with a dry cloth, prick any thick stem to squeeze out the fluid, place it in between two sheets of blotting paper (or thick layer of old newspaper) and then keep it underneath a bed mattress for 45 – 60 days.

Once the specimen was properly dry I would arrange it in a pattern on a thick paper using glue and at times stitch with needle and thread. Since then I never looked back or stopped adding to my botanical collection. Besides my limited reach, my son soon joined in my search and suddenly my collection boomed as he would get specimens from some of the remotest places on Earth. Today I have over 200 specimens in my collection representing over dozen countries and several continents. Many of these are extremely rare and exotic; while some are commonplace but each represent nature’s work at its finest. Even after a decade and half, I am as spellbound as I was at all the patterns, mosaics and drama my specimens offer.

I hope my botanical collection, of which I would be presenting periodically with more stories, would give you as much joy and amazement to behold as I experienced to create. To begin with, I am showcasing some of my earliest specimens; from in and around the concrete jungles of Mumbai: -