The shimul trees form a fiery red canopy of silk cotton blooms, spreading over the country road.
Tahirpur's Shimulban is a forest replete with the silk cotton flowering trees.
We arrived at Sunamganj by bus around 10 in the morning on 17 February and went on to Laurer Garh in Tahirpur from Sunamganj by the 'human hauler' vehicle.
We were under a shroud of dust on the way to Shimulban but it was well worth it.
The natural beauty in the area more than made up for any discomfort on the trip.
We get our first glimpse of Shimulban from afar.
It seemed like the silk cotton flowers had set fire to the orchard.
We had to walk across sandy bed of the river Jadukata to reach to Shimulban for about a mile as the river had dried up.
Finally we arrived to the galore of flowers.
We have never seen so much red in our entire lives. The place was tranquil and we listened to the birds chirping.
We took a short break in a lime garden.
The sun began to wane in the evening. The diffused light of sunset fell on the flowers and added enchantment to the beauty.
Perhaps this beauty inspired poet Rabindranath Tagore to write: "Flowers bloom, flutes play, birds sing, in this spring."
Ashraf Uddin, a resident of Laurer Garh, told us how the Badaghat union parishad chairman Jainal Abedin planted about three thousand silk cotton saplings here 15 years ago. And now it has become this beautiful Shimulban, an abundance of crimson blooms.
