The Scarlet Canopy - Gulmohurs!

There are some sights that do not merely catch your eye; they make you stop. A gulmohur in full bloom is one such sight for me.

There is something gloriously extravagant about a gulmohur. It does not bloom quietly or with any sense of restraint. It erupts into colour, scattering its fiery red-orange flowers across the branches as though the tree has suddenly decided that ordinary green is far too boring. And looking at one is sheer joy. Looking at one and clicking a picture? Beyond JOY!

Perhaps this explains my rather inexplicable habit of discovering places through trees.

Sujata, my friend and fellow traveller in these little adventures, would probably agree. We have never really needed a grand reason to explore Pondicherry. A photograph was reason enough. A flowering tree was reason enough. Sometimes, simply the thought that 'there might be something beautiful there' was enough to get us moving.

At one point, we began following Pondicherry Arun's posts. His photographs had a curious way of making us look at our own town with new eyes. Places we had passed without a second glance suddenly seemed worth discovering.

We would see a picture and ask, Where is this? And, then came the inevitable question: Shall we go? Off we went.

Velrampet was one such discovery. We went looking for gulmohurs. What we found was an extravaganza!!! The Scarlet Canopy!

They were everywhere -above us, beside us, along the roads - great spreading canopies ablaze with colour. For a while, it felt as though we had wandered into a painting and forgotten to find our way out. We were, quite literally, drowned in gulmohur. And naturally, we did what two people armed with phones and an unreasonable enthusiasm for flowers would do.

We clicked. One tree. Then another. A branch. A canopy. A flower that looked particularly perfect.

That is the strange pleasure of photographing beauty. You know perfectly well that a photograph can never quite capture what your eyes are seeing, and yet you keep trying.

Perhaps that is what I love about these little expeditions.

They are not really about the photograph. The photograph is merely the excuse.

What we are actually collecting are moments.

A particular afternoon. A particular tree. The laughter between two friends.

The surprise of discovering a beautiful corner of a familiar town.

The pleasure of having nowhere important to be and nothing more urgent to do than stand beneath a gulmohur and admire it.

And perhaps, years from now, when I come across one of those photographs, I will not remember the exact date or even the route we took to get there. But, I will remember the feeling. That sudden happiness of finding beauty where you weren't necessarily looking for it. I think that is one of life's loveliest little gifts - the ability to be delighted by something that serves no purpose whatsoever.

A tree does not ask us to admire it. A flower does not need our appreciation.

A photograph does not change the world. Yet, they can change an afternoon.

So yes, I will continue to stop for Gulmohurs.

I will continue to click photographs of trees that other people may walk past. I will continue to follow photographs that make me curious about places I have never seen. And I will continue to say, “Just one more picture.”

Because some journeys are planned around destinations. Some are planned around flowers. And, if the flower happens to be a gulmohur - I am already on my way.