The golden shower tree, known locally as ‘Kanikonna’, standing outside my bedroom, has started shedding its leaves, getting ready for its once a year flowering season. It would stand bare, letting the morning sun rays into the room for a few days. Grape-like bunches of yellow flowers would then start emerging from its branches, covering the entire tree soon.
When we were children, all Hindu homes sought these flowers as an essential part of ‘Vishukkani’ on the morning of Vishu. The festival of Vishu falls on the first day of the Malayalam month of Medam. All would get up early in the morning, take their baths and wear new dresses. The elderly women of the house would lead all children blindfolded to the puja room to have the first auspicious sight of ‘Vishukkani’, kept in a large brass vessel before the portraits of Hindu gods and goddesses. It would contain, in addition to a bunch of flowers from the golden shower tree, several items like a mirror, a gold ring, fruits like ripe mangoes, yellow cucumber, jackfruit, and coconut. It is believed that the sight of ‘Vishukkani’ would bring luck throughout the year.
From the puja room, we would rush to our father, sitting with a box of coins, for our ‘Vishu Kaineettam’. As soon as a youngster touched his feet, he would bless him or her and give a coin to each. Our next destination would be the houses of our relatives in the village, who would also be ready with their boxes of coins.
The branches of our golden shower tree reach the front portion of the balcony where I spend most of the day. Bedecked with yellow flowers like a bride, it brims with life. A couple of bulbuls spend a lot of time on its branches. Making queer sounds intermittently, they would often fly to the terrace of the nearby building, only to return later. A multi-coloured kingfisher is another visitor that is often seen on the tree. As its primary food is fish, caught expertly by diving into the water and resurfacing with a thrashing fish in its beak, I wonder why it is seen so far away from the water bodies that have fish in them. Small birds like sparrows feed on the petals of fresh flowers, and fly away in pairs for a while, sitting close to each other on the cable over the road in front of my house.
Squirrels are always there, twitching their bushy tails, jumping from one branch to another, never sitting still. A chameleon is seen perching on a branch, changing its colours often, looking furtively at others to see whether they have noticed its extraordinary feat. Large ants crisscross the branches in a hurry. Other occupants of the tree include crickets, grasshoppers, butterflies, beetles, bees and the like. The humming bees are always busy sucking honey from the open flowers.
As days pass, the withered flowers start falling, weaving a soft carpet below. The season changes soon and dark clouds begin drenching the tree with heavy drops of water. It would by then be full of leaves with occasional dark-green pods containing seeds dangling from among them.
