Scenes from Old Delhi/Sadar today:
- Gondi fruits! Apparently, edible!!
- Falsa fruits!
- Kachra (काचरा), the round cucumbers!
- Dried Chana leaves, to be cooked with some lentil(Masoor)!
- A lady with a roadside shop, feeding a kitten she found near railway tracks!
Came across the Calabash (Kamandal) tree at Talkatora Garden with large & smooth gourds sprouting straight from the trunk and fresh blooms. Native to tropical South America, its name comes from Spanish calabaza (gourd). The shells become vessels; the pulp traditional remedies.
Kamla Nehru Ridge is home to many Wrightia tinctoria (Doodhi) trees.
Its leaves give a blue dye and its pale, fine-grained wood is used for carving & traditional toys like Channapatna. In Ayurveda, its leaves form the base of the well-known “777 Oil” used in managing psoriasis.
Kamla Nehru Ridge is dotted with dozens of large Phulai/Amritsar Gum (Senegalia modesta) trees, currently flowering.
A deciduous, drought-tolerant, native species, it is prized for its timber, gum & nutritious fodder. It's tender twigs are used as datun for cleaning teeth.