Friday, January 20, 2012

Touch me not Flower

"Touch me not" or whatever you call is a common thorny wild bush flower in India. In my home state Kerala it is quite common. Here we call "thottavadi" means "fades when touched" . In other parts of India people call it Lajjaalu, lajvanti, lajjavathi etc. Sanskrit word for it is Lajjavathi meaning "shy dame".
We use it's leaves as medicine. I remember in my childhood in the village when we get injured while playing this was the immediate medicine we used. It has beautiful flowers. But no body cares. In my childhood days I used to wonder why people are not taking it for Onam festival flower arrangements. I had penned a small poem in Malayalam depicting that pain of neglect which thottavadi suffered.