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Burning bright
The Hindu
A universal delight, the gulmohar, or the “flame of the forest”, as it is called for its flamboyant bright orange flowers blooms in summer around mid-March, grows into a flaming canopy by May.
It just could not be! How could the tree that had been full of rich orange blooms right up to its crown, some months ago, was now looking like a balding man with straggling brown strands spread loosely. The brown dried one-foot-long pods had replaced the flowers evenly all the way from the top to the bottom. It seemed like a case of alopecia. Last year, throughout summer, the tree had been full of leaves. This summer, I am missing the green leaves. I live on the fourth floor while the tree reaches the third floor; so I can see its forlorn look.
A universal delight, the gulmohar, or the “flame of the forest”, as it is called for its flamboyant bright orange flowers blooms in summer around mid-March, grows into a flaming canopy by May. The tree, with more flowers than the tiny green leaves, enchants the eyes with the delicate, orange petals and red-yellow streaks and lights up in the sun because of raceme inflorescence. It lasts through the monsoon and autumn. Last year, four flowers lived well into December giving company to the rich green pods, though the leaves had slowly begun to slip down. Now the tree stands totally bare and I am shocked.
My earliest memory of the gulmohar takes me back to the time when I was in Class 3, aged a month short of seven. The teacher told the class, “Go out and bring one flower, any flower, of your choice.” Thirty pairs of black shoes trooped out as on an adventure and returned in five minutes with the posies in their hands. I had picked a gulmohar with tiny buds dangling from the stigma in its centre. It was growing on a bush-size tree; the red-orange colour had fired my imagination. “Now draw the flower and colour it with coloured pencils,” the teacher instructed us. Soon, the little hands were drawing and colouring their favourite flowers. And then my art piece was ready.
I folded the paper into two and made it look like an invitation card. I wrote an invitation on the inner pages and handed it to my teacher inviting her to my birthday party to be held exactly a month from that day in March. The teacher thanked me with a smile and said something which I did not understand.
In April, when she came to the party, she told my mother about what she had said when I had handed her the invitation, and both laughed. After my friends and my teacher had left, my mother asked me if I had invited her a month ago. I nodded happily.
“What did your teacher say,” she asked me.
“She said, ‘Thank you, darling, I will come.’”
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The Opposition Congress demanded that the government open the Gandhi Vatika Museum, depicting Mahatma Gandhi’s legacy and freedom struggle, built at a cost of ₹85 crore in Jaipur’s Central Park last year, during the Congress-led regime in Rajasthan. The museum has not been opened to the public, reportedly because of the administration’s engagements with the State Assembly and Lok Sabha elections.
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Almaya Munnettam (Lay People to the Fore), group in the Ernakulam-Angamaly Archdiocese of the Syro-Malabar Church opposed to the synod-recommended Mass, rejected a circular issued by Major Archbishop Raphael Thattil and apostolic administrator Bosco Puthur on June 9 to implement the unified Mass in the archdiocese from July 3.
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Pakistan coach Gary Kirsten stated that “not so great decision making” contributed to his side’s defeat to India in the Group-A T20 World Cup clash here on Sunday. The batting unit came apart in the chase, after being well placed at 72 for two. With 48 runs needed from eight overs, Pakistan found a way to panic and lose. “Maybe not so great decision making,” Kirsten said at the post-match press conference, when asked to explain the loss.