Let’s step back in time to that monsoon season when the Western Ghats held its breath and turned blue. To understand the hysteria of 2018, you must understand the patience of the Strobilanthes kunthiana . Unlike annual flowers that bloom and die in a season, the Neelakurinji operates on a biological clock that spans a generation.

Locally known as "Kurinji," these shrubs are mast seeders. They synchronize their flowering across vast distances, covering entire mountainsides in a dense mat of purplish-blue. After the bloom, the plant dies, leaving seeds that will lie dormant in the soil until the next mass blooming event.

The Kerala Tourism Department went into overdrive. Social media hashtags like #Neelakurinji2018 and #MunnarBlue began trending months in advance. Unlike the 2006 bloom (which was relatively low-key), the 2018 bloom arrived in the age of the smartphone.