Grass! So! What about it?

"The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself."
Henry Miller

The grass I've featured in my photographs is a lovely variety called “Kadda” in the local Kannada dialect. This grows wild in and around Dharwad. The fresh version is used as cheap fodder for cattle and the dry one to thatch roofs. I have beautiful memories of this pretty grass from the times we lived on a farm. It was a lovely experience walking among this waist-high grass and every once in a while pulling out a long tender stalk and chewing on it to suck the sweet juice. Ah, that was sheer bliss! 

As pretty as it looks, this grass is filled with fine black needle called “Oobu” with a base that mimics the tip of a crochet hook. These meanies get hooked onto your clothing and keep pricking you all over. On returning home, searching for, spotting and pulling out those needles carefully one by one was not something we looked forward to, but had to. For, if even one of those meanies were to be left behind, be sure, the rest of your day would be spent in feverish agony trying to locate that lone needle. However, for me those black needles provided the right depth to the lovely green/brown shades of this immensely aesthetic grass.

I remember collecting this grass, both fresh and dry by the armful and arranging it all over our farm house, in vases, in metal buckets, in milk cans, tied to the rafters, fixed onto pillars, hanging from pegs... I could never have enough of this attractive grass. Since I was a kid, I've been ever fascinated with the form, colour, texture, the way the blades grow out in pretty bursts, the slender curve as they reach for the sky and well, simply everything about this grass. I've been inspired to sketch, colour and paint this grass a number of times, as a kid to pass my time, as an art student to show off my nature-drawing skills, as a teacher to teach students the beauty of a monochromatic colour scheme, as a home maker to make frames to adorn my house... I recall having packed a whole baleful of this grass to take along when I got married and left for Bangalore. What I can't forget is the look of utter shock on my mother-in-law's face as she saw me unpack the grass!! 

Even today, this stunningly graceful grass never fails to catch my eye on my numerous walks and I try to showcase it's sheer beauty through my new found expression...