Of blooming serials

The seasons have done their rounds again and the new serial has begun.

Of blooming serials

The seasons have done their rounds again and the new serial has begun. Not serials of the 'saas bahu' soap opera type, full of rehashed sequences. And, hopefully, not serial blasts, serial bombings and the like. The 'tension' is over and Slumdog has swept it all. If you read the letters to the editor and some 'opinion pieces' you will find that opinions are mixed. Is this a form of poverty porn exhibitionism etc?

I am not a great fan of the filmy serial and mega serials. I can live without them. But just take a look at the 'serial blooming trees' along Bengaluru's many avenues. There are also 're-runs' of these to look out for year after year.

Have you tried to keep track of the series of colour changes in our Bangalorean trees? I first noticed this phenomenon one December-January when I had acquired a camera and took the kids for a jaunt to Lalbagh. At the foot of the hillock which hosts one of the Kempegowda watch towers there was a tree covered with red flowers (African Tulip). The contrast of deep red blooms, black crows and blue December skies.u00a0

Now it is the season of the golden Tabibuia and Tachoma. In fact, it is already in full bloom and the jacaranda blossoms are sprouting on the trees and are scattered all over the ground.

The Tree Serial has a few standard annual performers. The jacarandas, mayflowers or gulmohars (not Flame of the Forest, as they are often called,) the cassias, laburnums, rusty shield bearer, rain trees and acacias et al.
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In colourful succession. All adorning the green carpet, as part of the green Oscars.u00a0

This panorama was not entirely an act of nature. It was a deliberate horticultural feat. The planting pattern was ingeniously devised so that there is always a block of new flowering trees seasonally following one another (in planned 'serial blooming'.)

And that's one of the beauties of Bangalore. Its vegetation is not natural. But its climate covers a permanent moderate range which, with the assistance of Hyder Ali's and Tipu's gardeners, and European directors of horticulture like Mr Krumbiegal, made it one big botanical garden.

Its temperate was praised by Sir Bentham Bowring (or was it Sir Mark Cubbon?) to sing its praises as a Pensioners' Paradise.u00a0 'Europe without its freezing winters. India minus its scorching sun.'

The sad thing is that Bangalore's serial blooming trees are unseen by most of the IT denizens locked in their prisons of smoked glass and climate control.

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