Passiflora

I’ve always dreamt of waking up in the morning with sunlight filtering into the room through a curtain of greenery. So when I finally moved into a house which had (rusty) window grills, and a convenient ledge on which to place plants, one of the first things I did was start looking for an appropriate creeper to grow.
Surprisingly, it took more than six months for me to finally get home a “Krishna Kamal” sapling (some of the delay was perhaps because my gardening Bible, http://www.flowersofindia.net, did not recognize the name, and I was hesitant to ask for a plant that did not actually exist). But it made itself feel at home very fast, and in no time at all crept all the way to the top of the window frame.
I fee in love with the plant immediately, and would often get up a few minutes early just so I could lie in bed and admire the beautiful leaves. The plant still remained a mystery though- the leaves did not seem to resemble those of any other creeper. When the first bud came, I rejoiced for the wrong reason – now I would be able to finally identify the plant.
But when the flower bloomed, all my rational thought processes disappeared.
Breathtaking was the only word that could even start to describe the purple blossom. Breathtaking in more ways than one – the fragrance was something you could cheerfully drown in.

 

I must have taken a 100 photographs of the cheerful model before heading for the Intenet – it was definitely of the genus Passiflora, though the leaves still remained a mystery.
Passion flower! So named, not for the passion it inspires, but because its cruciform shape reminds one of the Passions of Christ.
Krishna Kamal! Because the stamens and petals give the effect of Lord Krishna playing on his flute while the gopikas dance around him.
“What is in a name?” wrote the immortal Bard. I had to agree. My flower was the most exotically beautiful thing I have seen in a very long time.