SPRING'S SPLENDOUR

A patient wait for a turn around in the weather, after bearing the winter’s onslaught, has paid off at last. Change is apparent all over. Finally nature’s circuit is being bejewelled by spring’s bounties. My morning walk in the park is a witness to the change wrought around. Observing the surroundings, I was struck by the ushering in of the heart warming spring fest in a spectacular spontaneity. As if the transformation from a withered look to the resplendent one is the handiwork of a magician’s deft hands. The
plants, shrubs and trees appear to have woken up from a deep refreshing slumber. The riot of blooming flowers together with new shoots, fresh and glistening,like the washed face of the earth, after a rainy day, signify the umbilical bond between man and nature and which we're forgetting, as “the world is too much with us.”

Spring dispenses its charms and its aromatic self, unobtrusively and soothingly without crying hoarse from the roof tops. Here nature casts its gems in our path freely. The priceless trinkets of nature’s benedictions overwhelm us in spring. We receive its visual pleasure for the moment and in our memories for ever. Wordsworth’s wonderful poem ‘The Daffodils’ celebrates the joy and fragrant beauty of spring. The poet is enamoured by the sight of blossoming yellow daffodils and the spectacle becomes embedded in his imagination and he poeticizes, “They flash upon the inward eye, which is the bliss of solitude.”

Hope and renewal co-exist and are constant in nature and amazingly visible in spring. Two contrasting states overlap on the Neem and some other deciduous trees. Each gives space to the other. There are tiny baby leaves on the ends of the branches, and down under some weather beaten grayish brown leaves are still hanging calmly. The timely pruned branches of evergreens and perennials are having a blast of glossy, eye catching, green hued, new sprouts, heralding the rebirth of nature.

On a micro level, at the home front and in the neighborhood, spring has unravelled its charms no less generously. My rose bushes are aflame with flowers and today when I stepped out of the door I was greeted by newly blossomed red lily, growing along the boundary wall. The lawns are much greener now. “Can you imagine my oval shaped thorny potted cactus is budded now and I expect blooms any day? Isn’t it a spring’s marvel that a prickly cactus bears the most delicate pink petalled flowers?” The Marigold in my back yard came to flowering early, in the beginning of March. My cherished herbs curry leaves; mint, aloe vera and Tulsi are out of hibernation and regaining their lost glory fast.

In my front neighbor’s side yard (a corner house) there are a couple of Bottle Brush trees. They are laden with flowers and their boughs hang downwards with the weight of the flowers and thick leafing. The mango tree is loaded with tiny white flowers signalling a bumper crop of mangoes. Together with other plants these weave a kaleidoscope of dazzling colors all around.

The mornings and evenings are luxuriously breezy and invite one for a relaxing walk. The wind envelops the body and massages it tenderly while passing by. There was even a light shower last week bringing in an invigorating coolness and bright clear sky.

Early summer vegetables have started arriving in the market. The advertisements for cool drinks and other beverages are already filling the T.V. screen and shop counters. April is waiting in the wings. Let us enjoy its moderate climate before the summer months cow us down.