Waste Not...

I'm trying to define thrift in today's terms. Is thrift a virtue, or does it have only recreational value?

These questions weren't relevant when I was a child; that was the era of hand-me-downs and  re-invented leftovers. The word recycling was unknown because it wasn't needed. Everyone recycled what they could as a matter of course. You didn't buy new socks when the elastic wore out, you bought lengths of elastic and stitched them into rings big enough to hold them up. Our mothers unravelled old sweaters and knit them up again. Sewing and knitting were necessary activities, not just hobbies.
We didn't have a glut of readymade garments in our cupboards or even in the shops. Markets held goods and goodies in plenty, but they weren't exactly spilling over. Nor did we buy compulsively. We didn't shop for fun so much, or because it would make us feel better. We didn't feel deprived either. That's the way the world was those days.
Thrift isn't just a matter of survival; it involves some level of ingenuity, because you manage to make something useful out of something you would have discarded.
There are plenty of videos of handy hacks on the internet. One of them showed how to turn  an old summer top into a shopping bag. That too an environment friendly bag, a good way to say no to plastic.

The top, and the bag, below

Two days back, I was forced to recycle for an old fashioned reason : want. The New Year arrived, but no calendar came with it.
I remember what my dad had done one year in a similar situation. He turned the pages of the previous year's calendar until he found a month with thirty one days, and the first of the month on the same day of the week as New Year's Day. With his firm handwriting, he wrote out 'January' and then the year.  I thought it was brilliant, because I wasn't very good with numbers. The makeshift calendar went up on the night of the 31st.
That was how it was with my father; he changed the page on the daily calendar just before he went to bed. That simple act was hugely reassuring: no matter what happened, tomorrow would come along at the right time.
My calendar went up at noon on New Year's Day. And as it happened all those years ago in my parents' house, someone brought a calendar for us in the next twenty four hours.

Celebration Lilies

 Easter lilies are so special. They almost always bloom on April 14, which we celebrate as 'Vishu' or New Year's Day. There would be a vase full of them in my mother's 'Vishu Kani'.
My mother remembers that when I was very young, I'd  pluck all the buds which were just about to open. She and my father would be waiting  to see the flowers and all they got was headless stalks.
 I must have been a monster of an infant. Thank God for parents who brought me up anyway - and passed on their love of flowers to all of us.

 

What joy to go around a new garden, checking what plants there are! And what joy to see Easter lily leaves, to know that there will be flowers in March or April. Those few days when they bloom are enough to keep you going through the year.

Our garden at Moraghat Tea Estate had both red and white lilies. The reds bloomed first and then the whites. Once the flowering was over, we planted the bulbs out in rows - something we carried on doing for the fifteen years we lived there.

The nuns from St.James School and Holy Cross School at Binnaguri would drop in to collect lilies from us to decorate the church on Easter Sunday. We shared our bulbs with them too and in time to come, they had enough lilies in their own gardens. I did miss their annual visits!

                                Moraghat Bungalow                    
                                                                                        

                                Bhatkawa Bungalow

Our next bungalow was at Bhatkawa Tea Estate, and my garden there didn't have a single Easter lily! I moaned about it for all the three years that we were there. You don't find Easter lilies in nurseries, you get them from friends. My friend in the neighbouring garden didn't have any in her bungalow either, and between us we knew no one in the district on whom we could descend to beg for bulbs.

There are several Easter lilies in the garden where we now live and I'm grateful to the people who must have planted these. They bring back so many memories.

 A good way to start another New Year, giving thanks for life, for family, for friends old and new.