The Indian Cork Tree’s expended blossoms infuse rare magic into the morning after a stormy monsoon night
I stay on the coast in Pondicherry. My sense of infinity is linked to the sea. It is not confined to poignant gazing at the horizon but often it attains a physical dimension — like infinite solar energy, pumping up infinite moisture-soaked clouds and, eventually, the infinite deluge.
Often this happens during the Diwali holidays.
Not surprisingly, the question on the returning monsoon is my favorite weapon to stump a studious class X smart-ass.
Luckily, the second flush of the Indian Cork Tree (Millingtonia hortensis) coincides with the monsoon here. Sometimes, the rains pause to take a breath. One such pause was on the morning after Diwali when I took the above pictures.
Five days later…
Three hundred kilometres away in Bangalore, the city’s tireless chronicler, Peter Colaco, wrote of the Cork Tree:
It was late in the year, most of the flowering trees had no blossoms. Clinging to the sides of the bowl were tall, stately trees with hanging sprays of white-scented flowers. The botanical name is Millingtonia hortensis and people call it the Cork Tree. But its Kannada name most accurately describes it: ‘akasha mallige’, sky jasmine.
Traveller, photographer, philosopher, art connoisseur, trekking guru, and master trip planner, Sahastrarashmi (SR or Sahastra to his friends) is on a relentless quest for the story of life. An engineer from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, he works in Chennai, India and lives (on weekends) in the former French enclave of Pondicherry (Puducherry to the officious). He is on a mission to introduce the uninitiated to the glory of the Himalaya.
Latest posts by Sahastra Rashmi
(see all)
-
Traveller, photographer, philosopher, art connoisseur, trekking guru, and master trip planner, Sahastrarashmi (SR or Sahastra to his friends) is on a relentless quest for the story of life. An engineer from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, he works in Chennai, India and lives (on weekends) in the former French enclave of Pondicherry (Puducherry to the officious). He is on a mission to introduce the uninitiated to the glory of the Himalaya.
View all posts