gardens | A fleeting glimpse

If you like the thought of meditating every morning in front of a beautiful Buddha in your own little garden, this is where you’ll find what it takes. Hybiscus. Hybiscus originally started in Cunningham Road, in the Hatworks Boulevard compound (another fave Bengaluru haunt). Imagine my delight when they started another branch so close to home! This one is in Basavanagudi – and I must say, charming though the hatworks Boulevard set up is – I find this more beautiful :).

The store is set in half of a huge old mansion’s compound – one of those bungalows that were built during the Raj most likely. The setting is perfect for a garden accessories store. It shares the compound with Ambara – a gorgeous store, but more on that in another post. And The Rogue Elephant, a small restaurant al fresco style – also more on that on Scatter the Batter :).

A lovely walkway entrance, flanked by trees and fountains.

This is one of the few garden accessories stores that I have found in Bangalore that stocks everything from gorgeous Buddhas, huge to ickle pots in all the deep hues of a tropical forest, mellow stone fountains and little snails, frogs and penguins to give your garden that serene look.

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This is where I bought my Buddha statue that sits next to the bamboo water feature in my balcony garden.

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Oh but the best feature..is this.. the hammocks. Sigh! The hammocks invite.. the tinkling fountains lull, and if you don’t watch out, you’re likely to nod off just absorbing the peace and quiet around you.

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Hybiscus is located opposite Krishna Rao Park in Basavanagudi, on Kanakapura Road (don’t confuse this with the main Kanakapura Road off the Ring Road, this is probably the beginning of that road?) in the same line as New Generation School.

There’s something so serene about water spaces surrounded by lush green. Just looking at pictures of Japanese gardens with their still ponds, ferns and rushes and miniature sculptures takes me back to a time when time itself seemed to slow down to let us savor the beauty of a dawn.

It’s quite a struggle to reach this state of nirvana in cities these days though, with the 4X4 spaces we have to be content with most of the time. I wanted to somehow incorporate some water into my balcony garden and used to crawl the net for ideas.

Then of course, My Sunny Balcony came and did a lovely urli water feature for us. More on that soon! Here are some lovely green and water-rich spaces MSB has created in the homes of people and offices. Their work dots Bangalore and makes it a greener place. And boy, what you can do in small spaces! MSB is a brave, fun and very addictive concern started by dear friend Reena and her 3 associates Athreya, Sriram and Shailesh in Bangalore. if you haven’t checked them out already, do!

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