Wear your attitude

Wear your attitude

An exception to the rule always stands out. In a city full of buildings, when you see a patch of green, your eyes rivet to it and stay glued. These days, my eyes are well-adjusted to the different shades of green, brown and blue. They are no longer an unusual sight. Yet the Darjeeling mountains always have a trick up their sleeves and never fail to keep me enamoured with their many surprises.

As we drove up the winding roads enjoying the perfect autumn weather, I was only paying partial attention to the oft seen view from my window. Out of the blue and green, appeared this huge, intensely pink tree! It is called the Pink Trumpet Tree or the Basanti Rani or locally, the Poui.

As the name suggests, it proclaims loudly to all and sundry that it is happy to be alive. Dropping all its leaves, it bedecks itself with every bit of its God-given finery. The tree is completely oblivious of its own beauty as it stares longingly at the silver – white, majestic Kanchenjunga. Do you think the tree is blushing?!

Beauty can be poisonous when it is arrogant and conscious of itself. Beauty can be evil when it is used for selfish self-fulfilment. Beauty that is just to please the eye does not exist long and fades away. Beauty that is skin deep and, on the surface only, turns ugly very soon.

The beauty of this Tabebuia rosea is not poisonous, evil or selfish. Every part of the tree is supposed to be useful. In fact, its leaves, flowers and the bark have medicinal properties. It is known to help in a wide range of ailments from a snake bite to a regular fever to maybe, even cancer. The lumber from this tree is widely appreciated for its durability and lustre.

The trumpet shaped flowers have both male and female organs. The manner in which these trees dress themselves is a lesson to all the norms of human dressing. What is cross dressing? Who decides what should be worn by whom? Which colour is more suited to which gender? The Trumpet tree is loudly telling us all to dress only to please ourselves. Formal dressing is in olive green leaves; when hard at work, you can see vines hanging from its branches; on a casual, restful day, its branches are bare without leaves or flowers; but the tree takes your breath away when she decides to have fun. Looks like the tree is in the mood to spend some ‘pink money’!

The colour pink of the tree calms and excites you at the same time. The message is strong – you can love others only if you love yourself. In the present circumstances when giant companies are handing out pink slips in large numbers, the tree is a reminder that tomorrow is another day and flowers will bloom again for those who conserve and adapt.

Drink a cup of Dorje Teas and be in the pink of health!

Write to me at Editor@Dorjeteas.com

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