Summer shades

"Gulmohar is a human" I said ….My daughter burst into fits of laughter..But then Gulmohar is indeed so ; a warm, passionate human with love running through the veins and reaching out to my mind like a soft and benevolent shade in the mid summers when the heat saps all liquids and desires from the being.

I garrulously talk to my family members about Gulmohar when the summer draws close. I talk about it the whole of April and May. It is like waiting for a family member’s coming home for summer vacation. . I wait for its arrival as soon as the rays of the sun get warmer and fades the green by the hedgerows. I know they bud and the first flowers appear by the end of April. It is full bloom during May. It is a feast to the eyes and one of the ecstasies of summer. .

."Incredible!” says my daughter when talks of Gulmohar

ensue out of nowhere in the midst of a different conversation.

The best part of a long walk is getting to see the Gulmohar ; appearing everywhere..  along the dusty pavements, along a breezy walkway, peeping from behind buildings, looming large clearly outlined against the blue summer sky...  The soft slant of the evening sun plays on the heap of orange red flowers …yellows, oranges and  reds paint in deep tones the dusty lane and the mind's canvas.

Bright flames of passion suddenly burst forth on an unassuming tree that had stood all the year just green like the next one beside it and then it is colours that swing before the eye in a long walk or a lazy drive... deep orange...red..the flamboyant flame of the forest interspersed with green leaves standing up in all crowning glory..

Images swing to the mind.. the summer rain of childhood, the wet streets strewn with the orange blossoms knocked down by the rain... the trees bending down with the weight of the water... the flowers scattered across and the flooding gurgling waters carrying the blooms down the lane…

Every dream had an orange bloom appearing in some corner of the mind…

Last year I planted a Gulmohar in the backyard of my home... the same month I realised I had conceived my younger daughter. It has grown tall now....probably some years from now I shall see one morning, a spurt of orange suddenly appearing amidst the green jungle of trees behind my home….probably it might take longer... and my younger daughter will have become a girl and my older daughter a maiden... I shall wait….wait for them all to ripe, for their flamboyant colours to fill my eyes, with all love and passion in the heart.