Bangalore’s Preserved Pink Bougainvillea That Found Me On The Streets Of Lutyens’ Delhi

Bangalore’s Preserved Pink Bougainvillea That Found Me On The Streets Of Lutyens’ Delhi

Bougainvillea flowers are devoid of any fragrance and found in myriads of shades. There is a particular time of the year when homes, trees, and roads of Bangalore are bursting with the striking colours, all around the blue sky. You look up and you find a dull pink and again you find the pristine white, look no further and again you find the bright pink. They are just full of surprises to everyone who passes by these floral kaleidoscope.

This city with its chaotic roads and equally chaotic infrastructure goads you and makes you fall in love with its skyline of different bougainvillea blossoms.

I don’t exactly remember when I had started falling in love with this city. But, nowadays, whenever I travel out of the city for a few days, I come to a realization that I am missing Bangalore, it’s dull sky and it’s simple happy people.

It was one of those days when I was missing the easy smile of a Bangalorean while passing by a store in GK, Delhi when I saw the shop window that had a pendant with a Bougainvillea flower glued over a blue colored glass pendant.  I was astonished that it had read my thoughts.

It has been a long tussle for me to accept that Bangalore is now probably a forever home for me. I often found myself grieving of my childhood city of Delhi that I was trying to replace in my life all over again. I knew deep down that memories can’t be replicated. Each memory is a passing story that stirs your soul. This closure was something that I didn’t know how to accept with grace. I often fought my tears of missing the familiarity of my childhood city of Delhi

But I knew this flower pendant was looking like the leftover summer sky of Bangalore that are resplendent with the burst of colors.

I didn’t think twice. I told the lady at the store that I am a Delhi girl but now I live in Bangalore and the city is full of this blossom. She wasn’t interested in my emotional exuberance and in a matter of fact way, said that she would pack it for me.

The Bougainvillea dark pink against the turquoise blue glass is my ode to the city where I found myself as a young mother and talking to my little baby in his pram. Teaching him the names of colors. The bougainvilleas were my lessons for my baby and me. While he gurgled in delight I said my little prayer, thanking the bounties of nature all around me.

My flower pendant stays snuggled between my cleavage, reminding me that home is where love lives. Bougainvillea blossoms serve as a reminder that no matter where I go, we may have shared the same sky but each city is unique with its little characteristics. Bangalore is the chilly mornings, dull afternoon romantic weather with the blossoms all around the streets and the sidewalks. If you have lost out on love, the Bougainvillea urges you to usher in the first flush of romance like it always was.