Amaltas

The amaltas (Cassia fistula) blooms in the hottest weeks of the Indian summer, late April through June, when everything else looks exhausted and dusty. Long clusters of yellow flowers drip from bare branches. No leaves, just gold against a white sky.

In Gurgaon, they line the roads in patches. You’ll be stuck in traffic in 45-degree heat and suddenly there’s a row of amaltas in full bloom, almost absurdly beautiful against the concrete. Every year they arrive exactly when the city feels most unbearable, and I fear the inevitable loss of them within 2-3 weeks.

The flowers fall in a way that carpets the ground underneath, a brief, bright yellow mat that lasts a few days before it’s swept away or dried up. In Kerala, it’s the kanikkonna, sacred during Vishu. The first thing you’re supposed to see on Vishu morning is the kani.