The Hindu Business Line : The riddles of living and dying

Sometime between 1960 and 1963, Brother Stanislaus brought a rare Talipot palm (Corypha umbraculifera) from Palai in Kerala and planted it on a hilltop near the St. Francis Church. Today, the Talipot palm is flowering (inflorescence) and will die in a year after fruiting. The planter, the over 70-year-old Brother Stanislaus, has retired to Bangalore.

Over phone the monks in the St. Francis monastery have been updating him on the famed life of the Talipot palm. Sometime, after the planting, the Talipot palm was to be knocked down for putting up a new building but that did not happen following mild protests from Brother Stanislaus. Today, ordinary folk and botanists are making their way to the Talipot palm, says Brother Wilson Kallungal, Principal, St. Francis Technical Institute. "It could take about a year for the Talipot palm to fruit and offer the seeds," says Brother Kallungal quoting experts.

Over the last two weeks, while walking the area in the morning, the whitish brown flowers of the Talipot palm did attract this writer but one did not take the palm seriously. Then, one read a piece by Manoj Nair in Mumbai Mirror titled, "Rare palm's final bloom" and from then on one has been regularly climbing the 60 steps to the St. Francis Church to observe the palm from near. It is an endearing sight and a Bihari worker at the spot told this writer in Hindi, "Kuch dinon se humlog is ped ke phool ko dekh rahen hain. Sab bolte hain, ye mar jayega (We have been seeing the flowers in recent days and now they say the tree will die)." He knew as much about the Talipot palm as this writer.

The flowering (technically called inflorescence based on the arrangement of flowers on a main axis, peduncle, and by the timing of its flowering) seems to have started first week of May and one Sunday evening Rama, my wife, came along to have a look. One tried to hug the trunk but failed as the around 100 ft. tall tree has a girth of about a metre. The tree top displays brownish white with flowers (and can be seen from far), with the second tier having green leaves while a third tier bears dried brownish palm leaves. "People from Kalyan, Navi Mumbai and other areas are coming to see the Talipot palm on its last stretch," remarks Brother Wilson, formally dressed in a pant and shirt at his office.

Wikipedia says the Talipot palm is a species of palm, native to southern India (Malabar coast) and Sri Lanka. "It is one of the largest palms in the world; individual specimens have reached heights of up to 25 metres, with stems up to 1.3 metre in diameter. It is a fan palm, with large palmate leaves up to 5 metres in diameter, with a petiole (leaf stalk) up to four metres and up to 130 leaflets.

The Talipot palm is monocarpic (fruiting once only), when it is 30 to 80 years old. It takes about a year for the fruit to mature, producing thousands of round yellow-green fruit 3-4 cm in diameter, containing a single seed. The plant dies after fruiting," mentions Wikipedia.

The Talipot plam could just about live for another year and some priests told Paul and this writer that many people have placed orders for the seeds.

"We will also be planting a Talipot palm to continue the palm tradition," added one priest. Early morning or late evening hours on week days are fine for climbing the well laid out 60 odd stairs (one does not turn breathless climbing) to the Church where one can say one's prayers, if in the mood. The quiet turns one inside out. The place is cramped with greenery and one can take an easy stroll without bumping into anyone.

The St. Francis Church and the Monastery seem to be centuries old, going by a stone plaque in the cemetery behind the Church. The stone memorial written in black letters says: "To the sacred memories of Fr. Antonio do Porto of Companions (Franciscans), the pioneer evangelisers of Bombay, Salsette and Bassein. They built the I.C. Church in 1544, a magnificent Franciscan Monastery and a college over the rock caves for the education of the natives. Fr. Antonio lay buried in the hill."

Possibly, the Portugese came to the hilltop (now styled Mt. Poinsur) with its rocks over 400 years ago, when Borivili West could have boasted of tigers and leopards in large numbers. Yet, they came (did they climb up a rocky path?) and settled down and the I.C. Church is still there at the foot of the St. Francis monastery where one is a regular visitor.

But Brother Wilson has a different take. He says the Franciscan Brothers settled down in 1905 with the St. Francis School starting in 1908. Walk round the St. Francis Church to the cemetery where lie buried monks from Kerala, Germany and Africa. Their tombstones have three dates: Date of Birth, entry into religion and death. One stands with lowered head as a crisp summer wind takes away with it the riddles of living and dying. From there one can have an overview of Borivili West with its 30-floor buildings jabbing the air.

Paul and myself were lucky when a priest helped us to the terrace of a four-floor school building to have a close up of the Talipot palm. This particular priest, 74 years old, is a non-know-how man. In a pant, bush shirt and chappals, the man of God from Mangalore, did not sport a mobile, an iPod or a blackberry. He offered a smile, a prayer and a blessing.

P. Devarajan

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The riddles of living and dying