Big and purple, it is proudly “propagated” as the ‘National Flower’ of Sri Lanka. It is on the government’s official website, the stamp issued to commemorate the National Flower, the school textbooks with children looking at it and committing it to memory, posters in Sri Lankan missions abroad and even on the worldwide web with Wikipedia and many a book on the flowers of Sri Lanka following suit.

Anula Meier Radalage has the distinction of having been the last Sinhalese to run a business in Jaffna before the conflict with the LTTE ended in May 2009. Her guest book lists special envoys Erik Solheim and Yasushi Akashi, many ambassadors, heads of missions and other VIPs who had stayed at her place- Anouk Swiss Chalet.