Kurinji Flowers: Flynn's memoirs

Thiruvananthapuram: Amidst the controversy over the Kurinji sanctuary, it would be worthwhile to read the novel Kurinji Flowers by British author Clare Flynn. It tells the story of Ginny Dunbar, a young debutante, set in South India, during the years of the World War II and the struggle for independence. It traces a young woman's journey through loss, hope and betrayal to love and self-discovery. Sabu Aliyar, a Canada-based demographer who has been fascinated by the novel, said Dunbar, left alone to cope with the repercussions of her past, has to battle her inner demons, the expectations of her husband, mother-in-law, and British colonial society, and her prejudices towards India and its people.

The author, happily settled in West London after a career in consumer marketing, working on brands from nappies to tinned tuna and living in Paris, Milan, Brussels and Sydney, is the co-founder of the popular website, Make It and Mend It and co-author of the 2012 book by the same name. Her second novel, Kurinji Flowers, is set in a tea plantation in South India in the 1930s.  Her inspiration came during a sleepless night in a Munnar hotel. She had to make another trip when doing its final edits so that she could stay on a tea plantation and walk in the steps of Ginny, who had to travel from London society life to British India, where she feels unsettled and out of place.

The story like the Kurinji sanctuary which is in the midst of Neelakurinji, or Strobilanthes Kunthiana, is a shrub commonly found across the Western Ghats but the decade-long wait for its blooming period is what makes it a rare spectacle. The Munnar hills are home to the scarce Neelakurinji flowers, found nowhere except West Ghats on the planet. It's documented blooming in 1838, 1850, 1862, 1874, 1886, 1898, 1910, 1922, 1934, 1946, 1958, 1970,1982, 1994 and 2006, and it's set to bloom again next year.