Autumn walks and strange sights

I love the autumn season. I know it sounds rather lofty from someone who lived in Mumbai for most of his life which has no season besides monsoon and summer. But I love it because of the way trees shed leaves, especially the maple tree and its large paw-like leaves. The colour shades of yellow, orange and red while some continue to be stubbornly green. 

For the enthusiast this happens because the leaves can’t get enough food as the length of the day shortens and sunlight wanes. But why am I getting science into poetry?

Fall denotes longing, incompleteness. Its pretty but lonely. The season has mixed feelings. When I go for walks, I take the routes where I can witness the splendour. And as the leaves crackle under my shoes, lets dive into some new discoveries.  

You can know a lot about people when you walk into their homes, but you can also learn a lot when you pass through. 

A few weeks ago, I started noticing a lot of homes having teddy bear soft toys on their windowsills or driveways. I wondered why so much love for teddy bears? We are not in Canada, are we?. Moreover the bears, of all shapes, sizes and color, would be looking towards the street as if the display was not for those inside the homes but for the onlookers. What could that possibly mean?

Then I saw homes having these red coloured paper or cloth cut flowers stuck on their glass windows or on the grass outside their house. Some had one large, some many small. What could that possibly mean? Had it been just one or two homes, it could be random. More meant pattern. (See, data science student talking!)

And then there were extremes. In front of a house was a display of a football match between two teams of teddy bears. It seemed to be a high scoring match with team A leading 6 to 4.

In front of another there were some books kept with a strange message,

Hi Mum’s and Dad’s

Need a Book

Please take one

ENJOY

STAY SAFE

Now let’s try interpreting this.  Is it Mum and Dad needing a book and willing to exchange for one or is it you needing a book so just pick one? I think it’s the latter. What do you think?

On delving further, here is what I learnt about my discoveries. It seems the teddybear walks began in London and caught on to New Zealanders. Initiated to keep the kids entertained during the lockdown, the idea was to spot teddy bears on windowsills or driveways while on a neighbourhood walk. Our own CJ (my host’s six year old) was excited one day as his count was higher than his dad’s while on a afternoon stroll.

As of the red flowers, those are red poppies traditionally worn on and around Anzac Day (25^th April 2020) as a mark of respect to those who died while serving their country.

Nice to see citizens participating in equal measure in varying gestures - be it giving joy to kids or respect to martyrs.