har-ish

I remember studying the lotus stem in zoology and botany, fascinated by what appeared when you looked inside it: aerenchyma, parenchyma compartments, vascular bundles and tracheary elements, all arranged in this strange little piece of botanical architecture.

But I also remember lotus stems for a completely different reason.
We once made garlands out of lotus stems, and, as fate would have it, I did it with my first crush.

So perhaps that’s why the lotus stem stayed with me. Somewhere between botanical anatomy and adolescent romance, it became one of those ordinary things that acquired a rather disproportionate place in my memory.
I learned its anatomy at sixteen.
I think I learned something rather different about it around the same time.