Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
- T. S. Eliot, The Waste Land
Moving words, but perhaps written to different weather patterns. If you happen to live, as I do, in or around Pune, this is the time of the year that trees put up their most spectacular shows, reminding us of their unbidden beauty, of their quiet rhythms, amidst our urban maelstroms of dust and stone and unrequited hopes.
It's a bit late now for one of the early traffic-stopping shows put up by the Caribbean trumpet tree (Tabebuia aurea) with dramatic yellow flowers on leafless trees. There are a few, in front of YASHADA along Baner Road. These are non-native trees and fairly common in Pune. I've seen a few in the Hinjwadi area as well.
The ubiquitous rain tree (Samanea saman), a pest in Pune, is also in flower with pink tufts. Not very showy but very common.
Palash (Bombax ceiba), which is pretty common in Pune (there's a large specimen right next to Aundh police station) is now losing it's flowers.
While another one, Indian coral tree (Erythrina variegata) is still in bloom. There's a dramatic specimen right next to the toll naka, opposite Aundh Chest hospital. It would appear that this specimen will be lost to the road widening operation currently underway, and perhaps, foreknowledge of it's destiny, has sparked a vividness in it's valedictory show.
