It’s a “white pumkin” flower n they look beautiful as they hang from its plant and it looks even more beautiful when this plant hangs from another tree. White pumkin (in bengali it’s Chalkumro)  is a creeper which creeps on the ground or climb another tree or plant.

Next to my auntie’s house (in Barasat –  West Bengal) lays our plot with so many different vegetation growing on it. There’s a huge mango tree .. some papaya trees and a big “kul gachh” (can’t get the english name … but in hindi it’s “ber ka per”) and many other weeds.  This white pumkin creeper has acutally creeped on this “Kul Gachh” … good thing about this is that stranger won’t be able to steal the pumkin – not even at day time !!

White pumkin as vegetable is not my favorite but some kind of dried tablets are made … we called it “bori” .  Urad dal paste(split black gram without the skin)  n grated white pumkin are mixed together seasoned with salt. Then this tablets are made by hand on a piece of cloth and are left on it to get dry. When they are completely dried in two to three days … they are ready to use in curry or semi curry dishes …. and i love it this way.

White pumkin tastes delicious when cooked with mustard paste … but reality is – anything cooked in mustard paste automatically tastes delicious … so nothing special about white pumkin !! Just like when it is cooked with prawns it tastes heaven …. but again anything cooked with prawns tastes as divine as white pumkin …

it’s the white pumkin creeper …. wish i had taken pic. of those hanging from the “kul gachh”.

normal pumkin’s flower are edible … but never heard or tasted white pumkin flower.

a grasshopper  feasting on white pumkin’s leaf …  bengalis eat the normal pumkins creeps and flowers but i guess not the white pumkin’s … i remember reading somewhere that in hot summer white pumkin are good for stomach n eventually the body as it’s easy on digestive organs  … keeping them cool. So  i too feast on white pumking in hot summer ….