Heatwave’s yellow.

[Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi]

Battered by extreme heat, summertime Delhi still manages to look beautiful, thanks to the Amaltas tree, which offers eye-soothing yellow flowers during the city’s scorching season.

Some weeks ago, as a curtain-raiser to the Amaltas season, this page recommended the best places in Delhi to see the trees in full bloom. Now, as the city enters peak summer, the flowering appears somewhat less spectacular than in previous years.

Amrita Sher-Gil Road, of course, has long been among the city’s finest avenues for viewing Amaltas in flower. This year, the road lacks the dense yellow canopy it wore in previous summers. One Amaltas in particular seems to capture the season’s disappointing showing. The fresh flowers of this tree have browned along the edges of their petals. Is the searing heat consuming the yellow?

The afforementioned curtain-raiser had urged readers to visit Hailey Road, one of Delhi’s most reliable Amaltas stretches because of the sheer number of trees lining the road. This afternoon, the avenue is barely yellow.

Actually, Amaltas is most striking when the tree is covered entirely in yellow flowers, without green leaves interrupting the colour. This year, many trees have already been decked with new leaves, softening the effect. The Amaltas at DPS Mathura Road School, visible from the Oberoi Hotel flyover, is a clear example. To be sure, Amaltas always gets new leaves in May; perhaps the leaves appear more visible this year because the flowers are less numerous.

Even so, some stand-alone trees continue to be spectacular. The UN Offices compound on Joseph Stein Lane has two excellently blossoming Amaltas trees, especially the one standing behind Gate No. 2. Another Amaltas on Mathura Road, near Neela Gumbad, is glowing so earnestly that it appears luminous even after dusk, holding its colour amid the lights of late-night traffic.

The ticket window at the next-door Humayun’s Tomb is also blessed with a generously flowered Amaltas leaning over its roof. But the tree beside the nearby juice kiosk has been reduced to a skeleton. Very sad!

The Amaltas disappointment continues across the Yamuna in Zila Ghaziabad. Three Amaltas trees standing at separate spots beside the Hindon River, near the old railway bridge, are only partly yellow.

Under the circumstances, safe to state that one of the better displays of Amaltas in the capital currently is a stretch of Second Avenue near Khanna Market. A row of Amaltas is showing yellow on both sides of the road. This moment in the intolerable heat, two citizens are strolling beneath the flowers. See photo.