Sunset at Olavipe

© Thekkanattu Parayil

Photo: Karthiki

Photo: Karthiki

Photo: Karthiki

© Thekkanattu Parayil

Water hyacinth

Click on image to enlarge.

This image of water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) in Olavipe Lake is from a photo by our local photographer Chackochen. It looks so beautiful. The flowers of water hyacinth are very delicate and, therefore, cannot be used for decorative purposes unless the whole plant is placed in a bowl of water. Once cut, the bloom withers fast. The oval shaped leaves are thick and sturdy.

Water hyacinth is basically a freshwater plant. In the Olavipe Lake they slowly die out when saline intrusion from the Arabian Sea begins by the end of November. The seeds fall to the bottom of the lake to sprout again when the monsoons that start in July neutralize the salinity.

Initially I wanted to title this post ‘A bouquet for the gods’ but changed my mind after looking up the plant on the Internet. In many places where it grows, water hyacinth is considered to be nuisance plant. If uncontrolled, it chokes up waterways, provide a growing field for mosquitoes and screens off sunlight that is required by underwater plants. Fishes are affected as well.

But water hyacinth could still be nature's gift to man. It has good water filtering capability, which could be advantageously used in sewage treatment. Good quality cattle feed can be produced from water hyacinth. Dried plant is used for packaging. It is good compost material and could also be a source for renewable energy. New research is bringing out many more benefits of water hyacinth.

In my area, and in some other places in Kerala, there is an exciting new development regarding water hyacinth – handicraft that can provide meaningful employment, particularly for women. Dried water hyacinth plant is woven into mats, bags and boxes that are visually attractive and durable. These are ideal for packaging high value products like jewelry, perfumes and gift articles.

Water hyacinth is certainly a plant with great potential.

Change in blog name - 'Song of the waves...'

Some of the returning visitors might have noticed that there is a change in the name of this blog. I have added ‘Song of the waves’ to the title. Hopefully, it should not cause any problem in accessing the site. The URL remains the same. If there is any difficulty, use the old name.

Let me explain what prompted me to do this. A recent post in ‘under the fire star’ (a must read blog; http://underthefirestar.blogspot.com/) carried the following comment: ‘Parayil A. Tharakan Blog may not have the most catchy name, but it's worth looking at. It is full of stories and pictures from a Kerala which must largely exist only in memory.’ (Well, the pictures are current.)

When I stumbled into the blogsphere hardly knowing the technicalities (a condition that prevails even now) the idea was to name my site ‘Abraham Tharakan Blog’. The label wasn’t available. It had been taken by none other than my second son who has the same name. His blog contains some good poetry (http://abraham-tharakan.sulekha.com/blog/post/2003/03/immortal-thoughts.htm). Unfortunately, he seems to have abandoned the blog. I suppose that running a division of an IT giant doesn’t leave much time for creative literary work.

My elder son, Joseph is a Chief Officer in the merchant navy. He has published some good short stories and poems. My two daughters, Rosemary in Chennai and Teresa in Mumbai are both professional editors. That leaves out my wife, Annie. She doesn’t write or edit, but attends to the other side – reading. If the number of times she has read over the books of PG Woodhouse, PD James, Ruth Randal, Anne Taylor, John Grisham and a host of other writers were recorded she possibly stands a chance to get into the Guinness Book.

Now, about the reason why I chose the name ‘Song of the waves’. It has always been there, deep down inside me, the rhythm of the waves of Olavipe Lake, the murmur of the wind on the coconut palms, the music of a pristine land.

Before signing off this post, let me thank all the readers who have encouraged me during the short time that I’ve been blogging and request for continued support.

And, here’s a photo of the Olavipe Lake repeated from an earlier post ‘Gift of the waves…’

http://parayilat.blogspot.com/2007/03/olavipe-gift-of-waves-to-kerala-gods_10.html