Orchids

Every Thursday, between Mitali’s dance class and swimming class we had a half hour to spare. We used to visit Barnes and Noble during that time because it was on the way and Mitali loved visiting it.

As soon as we entered, Mitali and Lyn, her babysitter, used to make a beeline towards children’s section. Beautiful picture books lined the shelves and cunningly placed soft toys added to the section’s charm.

Mitali used to take down a book of her choice and then they both settled down to half an hour’s reading, i.e. Lyn read and Mitali listened.

I would have loved to spend time in children’s section, but there was a problem. The desks and benches were not designed for a person of my proportions.

So, I used to wander about and browse through the adult section.

One day, while browsing, I came across a beautiful, coffee-table edition of an anthology of Orchid photos.

The photos were so lovely and the orchids were of so many different varieties, that I was hooked on the book. In 3-4 visits, I had completely read the book and seen every photo.

There was a lot of scientific and technical information in the book, which I do not want to bore people with. Those, who are interested, can refer to the following link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orchid

The link mentions that Singapore Botanic Gardens has the finest collection of the orchids. That reminded me that I have seen this garden. However, we did not have digital camera in those days and I am tired of scanning pictures. The best thing was to ask my brother-in-law to click as many photos as possible of the orchids, during their recent trip to Singapore and upload them on Sulekha as an album.

That is what I exactly did.

http://charuavi.sulekha.com/albums/allphotos/slideshow.htm

Please go through the album at your leisure and enjoy. I am giving the link above.