A flower always associated with Bangalore
Bangalore was very much a garden city until the incredibly fast boom took over…and the planners planted beautiful avenue trees everywhere. One of them is the Sampige (Champa, Shenbagam), a variety of the magnolia. Even today, Bangalore remains one of the few cities where one can get the heady scent of the sampige flower as one walks along…the trees are in flower right now, after the onset of the monsoon.
That’s the yellow variety of the flower (it comes in pale yellow too)…I remember the days when these flowers were strung together and sold at both the City and the Cantonment Stations, filling the air with their fragrance…it is one of the few flowers which smells as lovely even after it has faded…
I am sure this picture will bring back fond memories for many!
Just to add to your post – A certain street in bangalore is called “sampige raste”, or sampige road. This is one of the main roads from Malleshwaram circle to Tata Institute. The other one is the Margosa raste.
Arun
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I can almost smell it now. My mom and I used to buy these flowers as soon as the train rolled into Cantt. from Madras. To us it symbolized “home” Even today I remember those train rides. My parents have a lovely white tree. I have seen them in Hong Kong growing on really huge and tall trees. What a wonderful flower. A king of flowers indeed. Thanks Deepa avare for writing this article