Spring is the thing with... semal!

On the return of Delhi's showiest flowers

- Mayank Austen Soofi

To be a flower is a profound responsibility. The cyclic return to bloom gives our unstable world a sense of consoling predictability. It is thus a relief to break the news that the semal blossom is back. A pulpy red semal flower was sighted on Friday evening. It lay fallen under a Khan Market semal.

And this unusually warm Sunday noon, the semal tree beside the ITO crossing is glowing in a festive bloom. See right photo. As if some happy soul had flung holi's laal gulal up in the sunny air.