Blooming time has never been so beautiful in the Garden City as far as I can remember. This year, my favourite tree, the Tree of Gold (Tabebuia argentea) is in full bloom around the city and along with it the Pink Pouiu (Tabebuia rosea). The two trees are literally vying for attention and grabbing eyeballs of folks who pass by. What is more, people who hardly noticed trees have now begun to look out for them. Hopefully, this is a healthy sign for the days to come. Trees are a beautiful creation of nature. We need to have more of them. And Bangalore needs to get back all the lost greenery it once had. Trees were the soul of the city and with huge numbers of them gone in the name of development, a major part of the city sports a barren and depressing look. Some of the sites which have been shorn of green wealth have become dust bowls.
Pictures of yellow blooms in some of the major dailies made me want to visit Cubbon Park to click pictures, something I have not done for quite some time. The colour yellow had a magical effect on me. A close one’s ill-health had sapped me of all my enthusiasm and sunk me into a period of despair. Things are looking up now and hope they only get better with time.
I first decided to go on a Saturday morning (March 3). But a long and tiring Friday had its effects on my Saturday. My office was shifting and there was too much of packing and last minute work to do. I decided to visit on Sunday instead.
I got late on Sunday morning and had to shift my visit to the afternoon hours. During the course of the day I ended up injuring my right foot and had a tough time getting into my shoes. I finally made it to Cubbon Park around 4pm.
I got off at the MG Road entrance of the park and was making my way to the bandstand where most of the yellow clusters can be found. Somewhere near the pond, to my pleasant surprise I found a Moulmein Rosewood in full bloom. I took a couple of pictures. These blooms are tiny compared to the Tabebuia blooms and may not even get noticed. Not surprisingly, a visitor to the park (he seemed to be British) asked me in a quizzical manner, “What are you photographing”? I pointed to the tiny blooms and told him, “The blooms there”. He felt amused and asked me, “Why the blooms, you could instead take pictures of the birds and (on a sarcastic note), the garbage pile there (pointing out to a huge pile of trash).” Ewww! Here was a foreigner making a mockery of the sad state of whatever cleanliness initiatives that are supposed to be in place but not happening. Seeing the disappointment on my face, the man went on to add, “Nevertheless, this is a lovely park”, and gave a thumbs up and walked away. After the unexpected session of the good and the bad, I resumed my walk to the bandstand.
From a distance I noticed that the tilted Tabebuia tree was not only in full bloom but had become a sort of photography hotspot. People were taking turns to get photographed under the beautiful yellow canopy. I couldn’t wait to get under the yellow blooms and increased my walking speed. On reaching there, I went on a clicking frenzy. It goes without saying that the best time to visit Cubbon Park are when the Trees of Gold are in full bloom. It is like walking through heaven.
The bandstand was bustling with activity. A music performance was on with a small audience all ears to the singers. The rest of the crowd around the bandstand were the usual Sunday merry makers indulging in chats or games. Balls of different hues were being thrown across by young children adding to the colours and gaiety.
An ice-cream seller was making brisk business under the yellow blooms. He couldn’t have been more right with his choice of location. Most of the ice-cream buyers were children. Some of the brats grabbed a candy even as they were enjoying peddling across on their little cycles. It was a treat to watch them balancing their bikes candy in one hand. A lot of couples were wheeling their babies around in prams. There were photo-ops aplenty and I took shots at various angles.
The canines were having a field day treating themselves to leftover grub and rolling on the yellow floral beds. This fellow made the most of a pile of dry leaves jutting out his head now and then.
A boy on his cycle kept me on his toes. Every time I tried to capture his picture someone walked or ran into the frame.
A pile of something under one of the Tabebuia trees that was covered with a blue sheet acted as an eyesore when taking pictures. Try as much I could I found it difficult to get the stuff out of the frame.
As the lights went on signalling dusk I aimed my camera to capture the ornamental lights glowing in the midst of the blooms. The results were not as romantic as I wanted them to be.
As the darkness wore on, I made my way homewards ending a lovely date with the yellow blooms.
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While Tabebuia argentea are found in abundance in Cubbon Park, the same is not the case with Tabebuia rosea which were also in bloom at the same time. Fortunately, I was lucky enough to spot the two blooms together at my office campus. Have a look:
Potpourri 