Hope is always colourful. It has the warmth – the red, orange, and yellow of the rising sun. It lifts your spirit. It tells you that there is a road out there waiting for you to be walked upon.  As the streets explode with the various hues of the Gulmohar flowers, ever so beautiful even in passing and softening with their beauty and aura, the concrete and characterless cityscape, the heart sings along too.

 Yes, it is that time of the year (April to June) when our friendly neighbourhood trees, the Gulmohars (botanical name Delonix regia) are back in full bloom. The season is transient, yet we’re not complaining. Even if it is ephemeral, it brings forth a smile, a sense of joy and a feeling that all is not lost in this chaotic world. They spring from nowhere, these flowers and before you know, they’re gone – their transience only adding to their beauty.

 Said to have been found somewhere in the early 19th century by botanist Wensel Bojer in Madagascar, Gulmohar originates from the words Gul ( flower) and Mohar ( peacock) – its canopy and colours analogous to the flamboyance of a peacock’s colourful feathers. It is also known as Krishnachura in Bengali (Lord Krishna’s crown). Call it the Royal Poinciana or the tree of fiery flamboyance or by any other name in the Carribean, India, Pakistan, China, Vietnam, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and parts of North America where it grows extensively, it is still a thing of surpassing beauty.

 It has large flowers with four spreading petals that unfold like a poem as you walk past them on busy, dusty streets. A cornucopia of colours – from red, scarlet, orange, purple, yellow invade our senses, pervade our souls, and invite us to a grand display every year. The yellow ones are rare, but one of the most beautiful trees – they resemble a bouquet of sun beams, their petals like sun-kissed dew drops scattered along the streets!

 Yes, hope is always colourful. Like hope, the Gulmohars give us the strength to endure rough summers ahead. And the streets carpeted with these fragile and yet beautiful flowers tell us that though life is not always a bed of roses, we can hope to make it incandescent while it lasts.