The streets are full of flowers, Bangalore, India

A rash of the stunning purple King’s Mantle ( Thunbergia erecta) My morning run has become the highlight of my day now during the COVID - 19 lock down. Something I would be lazy about and would have to drag myself out for. Now it’s just the opposite. I get up without a groan and rush to pull on my running gear and my light trainers to safeguard my feet. I think of my doctor son who drives me to exercise. Who insists on running gear and top-of-the-line light running shoes and I thank him. The air is fresh, the flowers are everywhere and best of all, not a human in sight. That’s why my run during the lock -down is a treat. The lock down has lots of lovely benefits which we humans can enjoy if we look beyond ourselves. The Japanese observe the spring blossoms as a part of hanami - the appreciation of the transient beauty of nature - but you don‘t need a deep, philosophical meaning to enjoy a leisurely jog down our Bangalore streets, which have turned so picturesque and almost like when we were kids.

Always happy -- bougainvillea Because less people are out due to the lockdown, the flowers and plants on the roads are left to grow in peace. Usually while I jog there will be an army of pilferers, taking out all the buds and flowers on all the flowering plants, put down by the corporation. In India the concept is, if the flowers are on the road they belong to everybody and we can help ourselves. Honestly! No one minds if they pinch a few, but they will stand with bags and remove every single flower or bud on the plant. If questioned they will immediately say it’s for their pooja. Can’t imagine which God will be pleased with stolen flowers. But the logic does not enter their brains and it’s no point arguing. It’s a waste of time and I don’t. They don’t even spare the flowers in people’s homes. The branches over the walls get picked clean.

Purple beauties left to bloom on the plants. But now, they are locked in, to my great joy, no one wants the flowers and so they bloom in abundance on the streets which I jog on and can indulge in -- for the next few days. The bougainvillea in all its scarlet splendour, pours in an umbrella shape over the name of the service apartments on the top of the road. A beautiful scarlet which is flowering in gay abandon and the best part, with no watering due to the lockdown. Cross the main Residency road and enjoy the fresh green leaves of the massive rain trees above, as one crosses in Bishop Cotton Boys’ School. A little further, on St. Mark’s road, a young Honge is growing fast and already has begun to form the dense canopy the tree is famed for. The leaves are a perfect parrot green and look healthy and fresh inspite of no one to water it. I jog past the Cash Pharmacy and I look startled at the most beautiful royal purple flowers blooming thickly on a long line of shrubs.

Enjoy them before greedy fingers start stealing them again I have seen those shrubs completely devoid of a single flower -- no I exaggerate -- maybe a single flower left behind here and there from pilfering fingers. But now, I stop in shock to see the shrubs covered with a rash of the stunning purple King’s Mantle ( Thunbergia erecta) The shrubs look happy and healthy and it lifts my heart to see so many flowers. We fuss over our hedge flowers at home and here, right on the road they bloom nicer than any home garden. God looks after his own they say and here’s proof.

Hundreds of buds of the hibiscus before the sun touches them It’s a bit dicey running too close to the Bishop Cotton’s Girls’ school wall as the bougainvillea has poured over the wall with no one to disturb it. The thorns can tear so I run away from it but the gem colours which literally cascade over the wall are breath taking. Pinks and magentas, reds and yellows and ofcourse pristine white. No pilfering fingers and they flower for my enjoyment in their natural splendour. Get out there early in the morning, with the call of the Cuckoo pleading for rain and enjoy the sight of God’s creations untouched or spoiled by mans greedy fingers. Walking down such a street can be mesmerizing, but there are practical advantages, too. Apparently, tree-lined streets help with all sorts of heat-related urban problems, increase evapotranspiration (evaporation and transpiration from the Earth's surface) and encourage walking and cycling.