Delhiwale: A tale of two colours | Latest News Delhi

The park around the lake in Hauz Khas Village is full of trees. This evening, however, the picnicking people are more taken in by the sunset hues. The lake’s smelly water is aflame with the twilight’s colour, and no one is looking up at the unusual colours of tree leaves.

The park is studded with scores of pilkhan. Currently, the leaves of most of these trees are in their customary green—though the green is looking fresh, as if newly minted. But the leaves of some of the pilkhans are in shades of bronze.

Pilkhan’s old leaves start to fall off during the end of Delhi winters. New leaves come up within weeks. They are born purple. The purple soon transmutes to red. The red transmutes into varieties of russet and bronze, which make the trees look most remarkable.

You don’t necessarily have to come to Hauz Khas to witness the phenomenon. Pilkhan is spread across the megapolis, particularly plentiful in New Delhi boulevards of Neeti Marg and Nyaya Marg. That said, viewing the gigantic pilkhans around the lake in Hauz Khas makes for a more intense experience. Maybe because the place has very many pilkhan trees. Some of these pilkhans have benches placed right under their shaded canopies, on which you may comfortably sit and study the leaf colours in minute detail.

This being early April, most of the park’s pilkhans have gone green. The leaves of only a few are in bronze. Together, the two colours are forcefully conveying the shift in season. One bulky pilkhan, guarding the park’s lake-facing entrance, has leaves showing a fragile tint of bronze. A cotton candy seller sitting under the tree remarks that this bronze was richer just the evening before. An eavesdropping passerby notes that this bronze will “very soon” give way to green. It might go as early as tonight, he warns. If it does, you won’t have to wait for one whole year to again see this fading bronze. The coloured phase of the pilkhans will be re-triggered by the monsoon rains.

Meanwhile, a corner in the park is marked by two massive pilkhans standing side by side. One tree is completely in bronze. The other is in fresh green. Three men in white walk under the contrasting pilkhans. Suddenly, their gazes go upwards, transfixed by the magical scene. See photo.