Bhubaneswar roads are jam-packed today – people making the most of a chhutti day to indulge in frenzied shopping for Saraswati Puja!! Pantaloons in Sahid Nagar is choked and gasping while Big Bazar and Bazaar Kolkata are spilling out! Its as if the warmth of Spring has brought the world out of hibernation. Everyone looks headed for one destination – shops. Shopping and more shopping makes you wonder if the colours of spring have cloaked the gloominess and despair of recession!!
The mornings are foggy and as the fog clears out with the first rays of the sun, fresh green foliage emerge – the young leaves look wax-polished as they sway in the gentle cool breeze that carries with it soft flowery fragrances. Driving down the roads one can see the resplendent blossoms of ‘Krushna chuda’ and orangey-red ‘Palash’. Today I also saw crimson red ‘Kaniaris’ in the road dividers – all the hues that tell us that the season of Spring has truly arrived. And not to forget the mango ‘boulas’ – delicately sweet smelling, yet stoically standing up to the spoilt sport fog that threatens their fruition.
Completely a season of hope and fresh new beginnings, little wonder then that the season of Spring has been so eloquently rhapsodised – from Lord Krishna’s Madan Utsab descriptions in Dashakumar Charita, Garuda Purana, Kalidasa’s writings, Tagore’s immortal lyrical compositions with the Vasant Utsav celebrations at Shantiniketan in the ‘Aamrakunja’ or the mango gardens and then the classical english odes – Spring blends romance, spirit, activity, hope and festivity making it the most joyous time of the year. And Bhubaneswar is just so beautiful in the short teeny weeny springtime that it experiences!!
