The individual flowers look sloppy, but bunches of them clustered into orbs, are enough to make my heart jump. These blink and you’ll miss ‘em trees dot the bylanes of Bangalore - Tabebuia is an abbreviation of "tacyba bebuya", a Tupi (South American peoples living in scattered areas throughout the Amazon river basin) name meaning "ant wood".

When I look out of my balcony, I can see Tabebuia Rosea and the very rarely sighted Tabebuia Argentea in bloom. Whatever else may happen, spring is on its way.

It is also a reminder of the Greek god of the underworld Hades taking a wife - Persephone, Zeus, and Demeter's daughter. Goddess of vegetation, spring if you may. Hades decided he wanted to marry his sister Demeter’s only daughter. And the only way he could do it? By abducting her!

He snatched Persephone and took her with him to the Underworld to be his wife and queen.

Demeter Persephone’s mother hearing what had happened, wandered the earth, neglecting her duties as the goddess of agriculture and fertility: the earth was now barren, and people were dying of famine. Seeing her roam the earth so listlessly, Zeus sent Hermes to the Underworld to fetch Persephone back to her mother.

And so they were reunited, but for one minor detail! Tricked by Hades, Persephone had tasted pomegranate seeds in the Underworld. This, according to ancient laws, obliged her to remain there!

By eating a few pomegranate seeds, Persephone tied herself to Hades—the pomegranate being a symbol of the indissolubility of marriage Zeus, ever astute, proposed a compromise: Persephone would spend two-thirds of the year with her mother, and one-third with her new husband. Everybody in Olympus above and Hades below agreed, and that’s how the seasons were born and how the growth cycles of crops were explained!

Persephone spends few months of the year below the earth. This is the period of Demeter’s grief which coincides with the dark, winter months.

When the time comes for Persephone to come back to her mother, Demeter brings back the light and the warmth, and the earth rejoices. It's the Spring equinox where I am, and "whatever else may happen, spring is on the way." :)