Bodhi Meet @ Defence Colony Club

 By Vijaya Chamundeshwari

     Summer time asks for a place chilled with air cons but this club has the luxury of fresh air and natural light with huge trees surrounding it. More than all of this we have our defence colony members who are ever so ready with stretched arms and a broad smile ready to welcome us and stuff us with affectionately served goodies. It is no surprise that we had the hall filled with a whopping 25 members chirping away. Even the SUN had the brightest smile!

     With doctor welcoming us all to a session on FICUS we were all ears and eyes. Brains were set afire with naming the different plants that were displayed. ‘That’s a long Island’ says one while the other says ‘no no no that’s green island’……..Suseela Verghese cleared that by saying Green Island belongs to the microcarpa family, which also has Long Island, Compacta, Coin Ficus and few more  under it. Long island does not have long leaves. They all got their names from their place of origin. Ficus compacta plant has small leaves and is well suited for a Mame Bonsai. George spoke on Ficus Rumphii a fig species that drops aerial roots. Again, we had this doubt about Ficus Rumphii and Ficus Religiosa cleared by Sheela Babu. The leaf of Religiosa has a long, pointed tip and is what we also call the Bodhi Tree or the common Arasa Maram. With that we all attained enlightenment.



     The Tree of Life as most of us know is a symbol of unity, signifying the interconnectedness in this universe, as depicted in many art forms from paintings, murals to sculptures. To our surprise, Molly Cherian brought us the actual Tree of Life.  A beautiful sturdy tree that gives pretty purple shaded flowers - the National flower of Jamaica. Guaiacum Officinale is the botanical name and is known for a lot of medicinal qualities.

     There was a lot more said about summer care by Mohan and Ficus maintenance by Dr Yogesh. Google search and chatgpt gives you the basic info but for hands on experience and care on these topics, we suggest you become members of our club, where we enjoy exchanging knowledge and experience. Every member has a different experience with their trees and one of them might match your own. The high light of our sessions is always the Q&A Open House.

     Ficus is not a topic that can be covered in just one session. Next month being a holiday, we have enough to work on with the help of our masters through WHATSAPP. 

Happy holidays

Join our regular club meeting every 2nd Saturday

 BODHI - The Chennai  Bonsai Association

What makes it Bonsai?

Do you wire the roots?

Does it live indoors?

Do you give it any water?

The art of bonsai is not a mystery.

Would you like to know  more about how to create  and maintain a living  bonsai?

You can find support and  educational opportunities  in BODHI - The Chennai Bonsai Association.

Regular meetings are on 2nd Saturday of the month from 2.30 to 4.30 pm.

Our club is a great  place  to start, renew, or continue to explore your interest in bonsai .

Bodhi @ SPACES

By Vijaya Chamundeshwari 

 It was the second Saturday of March and we Bodhiites marched towards Besant Nagar and found our SPACE to meet and work on our plants. With chairs arranged like a class room and a lengthy bench placed opposite for the speakers of the day our president welcomed his Bodhi family warmly and with pride of the happenings since the beginning of this year. The Japanese embassy had invited us to be part of their celebrations in VR Mall. We felt very honoured to display a few of our bonsai which were appreciated by the visitors. Let’s take a bow to the spirit of Japanese culture. 

 JADE was the plant of the month and Vijji (me) was thrilled to speak about her favourite plant which she considers a jewel amongst the bonsai plants. It was interesting to know that in suitable conditions, it could grow as tall as even 10 feet! The varieties of Jade – Portulacaria Afra, Crassula Ovata, Hummel’s Sunset, Gollum, Hobbit, Variegata and the Blue Bird – each of them had a character and it was nice to know that our members like Mala and Suseela had most of them. Maria spoke about the styles possible, which was just about any style, though cascade was the natural and easier one with the Jade. We had our member Girija even make a pergola out of Jade.

A talk on Jade by Vijji

 

Maria explaning styles in Jade

Sheela Panicker - Show n tell

The Jewel of Bonsai - Jade

Suseela spoke about how it is very difficult to grow an upright style bonsai of any plant. The simple look is deceptive, as we need to train it following rules that hold it upright, with branches alternating and forming a triangle from a wide the base to a narrow-pointed apex. The Jade that she had displayed was an interesting fusion of Upright and Bunjin. Sheela Panicker had a pretty Bunjin style Ficus that had a slanting style fused into it, placed in a cement and cloth painted container that she herself had made. It felt good to see her take pride in being part of Bodhi which groomed her skills in a short span. It was a very informative and an interactive session. Inputs from members coming from different corners of the ‘class room’ with a little kid scurrying in and out made it look more like a living room conversation. With tea & biscuits; cakes & samosas doing the rounds a few plants were bought and a few corrected enthusiastically. Soon it was time to disperse and we bid good bye with our heads filled with info and hands itching to work upon our little greenies. SPACES that had trees watching over all that was happening had a lot to rustle and bustle about.

Happy class room

Bodhi @ Auroville

By Vijaya Chamundeshwari In the bus and off on an edutainment tour –

Bus full of chatting n gleaming bonsai enthusiasts

Our Bodhi Bonsai Club outing was an ‘edutaining’ tour to Auroville. The Botanical Garden welcomed us with hibiscus juice and a very colourful and healthy combo of food. Uma our tour guide took us on a walkathon through a thicket. Between the sound of our feet rustling over dry leaves, she rattled away some botanical and local names with interesting anecdotes. Uma had to warn us jokingly about cameras in the cacti store house, as we impishly told her we might pocket a few if she doesn’t sell them to us. Few of us enjoyed posing from a tree house and enjoyed hitting dead ends in a maze. We saw interesting fire ant nests and tempting red berries that were sadly meant only for birds. With aching feet and no place to sit through out our trek, the sight of tables and chairs let out a sigh from most of us. We finished off with tea and kombucha as the preference went and headed to……

The wandering bird watchers

Into the Thicket

Cacti Store House

The Pondi Beach ofcourse! How can we not take a walk by the coast line! A bunch of us with aching legs competing with an ache for ice cream beat the chill breeze with special Pondi Kulfi. After the last lick we headed back to the bus. With eyes glaring at us for our delay we sheepishly sat in our respective seats.

On the rocks

Ice Ice Babes

Inn Pondiville – A home stay in the lap of Nature, was where we were lodged. We drove towards Auroville AND the sun went down, down and down to bed. The head lights of our bus ripped through the pitch-dark pathway. Our pupils dilated to its maximum until we reached the gates of Inn Pondiville. Each one of us carefully stepped down managing our stiff joints and eased into our rooms.

The Boys Band plonked until the ladies finished shopping

Its Party time and there is no excuse for low batteries. With a birthday boy amidst us we ‘cheer’fully sang to him as he cut brownies. We quenched our thirst amidst clinking glasses and filled our tummies with food served on banana leaves. We took a chill pill and said cheers to a well spent day.

Feeding the new born

Refreshed and up after a good night’s sleep, all our baggage got stuffed into the bus along with a few trinkets of plants. Breakfast was served and in-between two of us escaped into the wild cashew grove following the chirping of birds. Into the bus and off we went to the Idlers farm and lunch at their café. David welcomed us at the farm and took us on an ‘edutour’ after he introduced us to the rice and millet varieties he grew, chaffed and used in his café run by Anne- his life partner. We were enlightened by his 5layer and 3layer farming methods where the harvest was more and the land was less in the form of a mound. His team of members were all ladies from the village around, who have been trained by David. We saw some exquisite varieties of vegetables like the winged beans and the air potato. With no chemicals at all and just by mixing cow urine, jaggery, turmeric, asafoetida, ash and the likes he ferments them in a particular ratio and combo for both growth and pesticide. The manure pit was also explained where he got his mulch. We drove to the nearby Idlers Café where Anne and her daughter cheerfully served our hungry tummies with nutritious meals.

Winged beans and air potato

Nutritiously fed with love

After our signature group pic, it was Homeward Ho!

Happy faces of Bodhi family

February 6 th and 7 th 2026 will be memorable pages in the Bodhi Bonsai Diary.

Japanese Cutural Celebration, Feb 1st, VR Mall

Doctor Yogesh

The Japanese Embassy was part of the Japanese Cultural Celebration held at VR Mall, Anna Nagar, on 1st February 2026. Our bonsai specimens were thoughtfully displayed during the event and attracted great interest from visitors. The display received wide appreciation from the audience for its artistry, discipline, and harmony with nature, reflecting the true spirit of Japanese culture. It was an honour for our club to be part of this cultural celebration and to share the art of bonsai with the public.

YEAR END CELEBRATIONS AT BODHI

Vijaya Chamundeswari

                  Celebrations are on for December with Christmas round the corner and New year playing pee- ka -boo. We at Bodhi enjoyed our year end meet which began with our President welcoming us all with a cheerful birthday smile. We were all ears to the string of achievements of 2025 while our eyes were on the silky chocolate cake on the table. Very patiently we waited for Dr. Yogesh to cut the cake, fed him bits as tiny as a Keshitsbo and gobbled chunks of the juicy chocolaty cake forgetting that we might become like an Omono or Dai.

Seasons Greetings 

 & 

A Happy New Year

 

Celebrations

               Back to BONSAI – we had a game of TAMBOLA and the winners were gifted plants that were mostly Moyogi and a few were Chokkan ready to be worked upon. Even the menu was Chinese reminding us of our Heron Bonsai master Peter Chan. Bonsai was made popular in America too by John Naka.  Are we surprised that the Chinese Cuisine is popular worldwide! With the same patience and dedication needed for Bonsai we dug into our plates savouring every morsal. If growing a Bonsai can help us reach immortality as the belief goes, so does good food, I guess!

The Bodhi Tribe

 

            We then had our eyes on our very creative artist Molly Cherian who was scampering hither n thither squeezing her palms – she forgot to bring her Asabachi which she had cleaned and prepared to bring for the Penjing Demo. We were quite resourceful in getting a tray which she did make do wonderfully as she placed soil, rocks, figurine and water along with Yucca plants creating an Oasis. A creation that showed adaptability and resourcefulness. A Shansui was created. The 3 styles of penjing are Shumo a tree Penjing, Shuihan a rock penjing and Shansui a mix of land, water and figurines.

Molly's Penjing-Oasis

            Ficus Nuda and Retusa were worked upon by Dr, Yogesh and Suseela, turning very confused forms into beautiful art pieces and Ouch! one branch did break but the philosophical mind just says …maybe it was just not meant to be. Ficus seams to be our favourite in Chennai with the numerous varieties available – why not! When the oldest Bonsai surviving more than 1000 years happens to be a Ficus Retusa in a museum in Italy.

Contemplating and creating >

              Imperfection Impermanence and Incompleteness are the key notes of Wabi Sabi which encourages us to keep working on our plants. This is a continuum that keeps our creativity alive. Year 2025 comes to an end but our love for Bonsai begins with renewed energy. Every year is a new beginning for us Bonsai lovers. Take us to a nursery and we are nothing less than kids in a candy shop. Wonder what would we do if we were in Omiya! Just as the Yamaki the White Pine stood the bombing of Hiroshima still stands tall in Washington, we at Bodhi will stand up to our passion so steadfast that not even a virus like Covid 19 or any other can shake.

 

    CHEERS TO US ALL AT BODHI BONSAI          SEASONS GREETINGS AND A HAPPY 2026

 

P.S. All the words in bold are taken from the quiz that Sheela Babu had prepared and we all failed miserably. It was like Sashi Tharoor’s vocabulary but we are enlightened beings now

Winners with their prizes

Written  by Vijaya Chamundeswari 

Photos  Vijaya  Chamundeswari

Walk-through of Bodhi Bonsai Exhibition October 2025

Video Courtesy : Latha Rao

Experience the Bonsai Exhibition organized by Bodhi - The Chennai Bonsai Association at the Lalit Kala Academy on 30th Sept - 2nd Oct 2025.