Reflections

But these were as trifles. The weather was delicious: cool, but not too cold, the sun was pleasant and the Red Silk cotton was in bloom. Of the flowers which make the Bengal spring so delightful, the red silk cotton is perhaps the first to flower. The trees are totally leafless but the blood-red blooms are on every branch. The space below is often carpeted with red and the flowers are powerful magnets for a large variety of birds. On or two “madar” trees were also blooming I noticed, but the palash trees, not so common In Howrah District, were yet to blossom. There is something that makes me very nostalgic when I travel by a local train, or more specifically by the EMU coaches. It reminds me of many journeys made in my childhood to Krishnanagar to visit my grandparents, of journeys, made just to see the green fields when we tired of Kolkata and of our journeys to small stations in Jharkhand and Purulia with our rucksacks en route to a camping holiday. Babusona and his gamchas ...