AakashMallika—the name of a Poetry Journal? Yes, Aakash Mallika has a story to tell. It suggests ‘Bhuma’- the wide expanse and captivating beauty. My own association with it is quite old, leaving a deep imprint on my psyche, nay, the whole being. I have seen it in different seasons with a variety of messages since my birth. Aakash Mallika is essentially a Cork Tree, native to Southern Asia spread over India, Myanmar, Thailand and Southern China. Its botanical name is Millingtonia hortensis, named after Thomas Millington, the British botanist. The tree is known by various names—Aakash Mallika in Bangla, akash mallige in Kannada, neem chameli in Hindi, akash chameli in Marathi, kat malli in Tamil and akashnimb in Konkani. The tall deciduous tree with delightfully fragrant, white, waxy and trumpet –shaped flowers are grown both in avenues and gardens. The blooming trees in Bengaluru and Mysore are a feast to the eyes. I still recall my journey from Suri, Baruipara to Sainthia in a bullock cart half a century ago after the Durga Puja, when I saw these trees with white flowers hanging, on the road side. Alas, those are not there now. A victim of widening roads and the process of urbanization. The tree-its bark, leaves, and various extracts has got many medicinal properties. The fragrant flowers bloom in the night and early in the morning between October and December, and fall and carpet the ground around. The lone tree on the southern side of our house at Mahanad, Hooghly,West Bengal was really a towering one and a wonder to us all. My grandfather, Dr. Pravash Chandra Bandyopadhyay sowed the seed of this tree way back in 1937. It was gifted by Rai Bahadur Nalininath Guha Majumdar, O.B.E. I.P., the then Special Superintendent, C.I.D. Calcutta Police, a friend and well-wisher of my grandfather. My grandfather had visited the Rai Bahadur’s house, Kedar Dham at 1/1/1 Hazra Road in Calcutta.(vide my book,’ Bina Rekhar Path’:Kolkata:2005). The tree stood tall and lived up to 25th May, 2009, when it could not sustain the heavy onslaught of the cyclonic storm nicknamed ‘Aila’ which lashed the coastal districts of West Bengal and Orissa. I could not see the felled tree--its sad demise, as I was staying in New Delhi at that time. Though the mother tree is no longer there, some of its offspring are in the vicinity. The myths associated with Aakash Mallika tree are interesting. One story says that this is a heavenly tree brought to the earth by Lord Krishna. Satyabhama and Rukmini, Lord Krishna’s wives, quarreled over this tree. Sensing the problem, Krishna planted the tree in Satyabhama’s courtyard in such a way that, when the tree blossomed, the flowers fell in Rukmini’s courtyard. An excellent solution, indeed! Another myth says that Parijataka, a princess fell in love with the Sun. The Sun, however, left her and bitterly disappointed she committed suicide. A tree came out of her ashes. This new tree could not stand the Sun and so it blooms at night and the flagrant flowers fall to the ground like tears before the Sunrise. The AakashMallika is being launched with flowers and their different facets for the readers all over.
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