The Radhachura tree

I remember reading somewher that there are more than a thousand types of gulmohor flower available. I may get the number wrong though. Among all these types of gulmohor the one that still has been fascinating me since the age of two years is the thick yellow flowers with coffe coloured stems and seeds, which we call Radhachura.

I remember we were in Hailakandi then. We used to stay in the house, the last property that my grandfather had built just after they moved there from Hobiganj after India got its independence at the cost of partition, which not only cost my grandfather two houses and some acres of fertile land but also his life.

There were two gulmohor trees at the two sides of the huge gate guarding the house with two lawns and two ponds. One of them was a Krishnachura tree which used to beautify itself with big red flowers. That's the most common pattern of gulmohor avialbale I think. The other was the Radhachura tree. The nature must be the greatest fashion designer. It releases such great colour combinations that it becomes the biggest trend later. The combination of thick yellow and coffee colour is one such example.

Ours was a joined family. As our mother and aunts used to be busy in kitchen all day, me and my sister used to play all day under those trees. There used to be a mild fragrance in the air. It was so mild and faint that I never acknowledged it until last week when I went to the SBI branch near my house in Bangalore and a familiar fragrance automatically drew my face upward. It was the same Radhachura tree, I was standing under whose shaded area. It was as familiar as of a loving relative and such was its fragrance. For a second I forgot that I was thousands miles away from a house that exists no more and that more than two decades have passed since that playful time. But Radhachura is still there never ceasing to adorn itself with beautiful flowers and mild fragrance.