It's that time of the year again!!

No not the time when whole national capital region get's covered in the blanket of smog and one can hardly see the sign posts present few feet away. Nope, not the time when people like me step into trees standing guard on the footpath or get surprised by the low hanging branches only to come out with a banged up head and nose.

It's the time when Ceiba speciosa flowers!! It's the time when the silk floss tree is covered in big pink flowers with creamy center. As the winter progresses with each day the large, beautiful, five-petalled flower blooms from a bud, unfurling petal by petal. As the tree slowly looses it's leaves to the winter draughts the once green sentinel turns into a pink princess wearing a fresh new dress made of pink flowers and nothing else.

I had a rendezvous with this tree for the first time in Garden of Five Senses exactly one year back. There, amid the crowd of thousands of plants one stood out. A silent sentinel, tall and bulky, green and pinky standing guard at the entrance. With it's trunk and branches covered in thick prickles it was a courageous soldier warning against harming the thousand plants waiting to meet us at the end of brick lined path.

I almost saluted it like you do out of respect for a brave soldier. My hands went up but instead of a salute I ended up caressing the pink beauties. I was sure I heard the angry rustle just then, maybe it thought I was gonna pluck the flower. But I remember that saying...'if you like a flower you pluck it, but if you love a flower you water it and let it grow old.'

And unashamedly that tree was my first love!! I saw a hundred trees, a thousand plants but to this day I remember this one tree as it stood there in all it's pink glory although a bit prickly. For days I kept seeing it in my dreams, a tree out of mystical world and interestingly it's called a Kalpvriksha in Hindi. For me it was a tree straight out of fairytales and our meeting was no less than that!!

...pink beauty with creamy center...

...a silent sentinel...