We were
assembled at my place, around four or five of us on a Sunday. My boss was also
there, as were my friends from the local government. Talking of this and that
we landed on the topic of flowers. It was the month of July and the Mughal
gardens of Srinagar were blooming to their glory. They were a riot of colours.
In the midst of the conversation on flowers somebody happened to say that
surprisingly though Kashmir had temperate-like climate yet it did not have the
exotic flowers like tulips and daffodils.
I butted in and
said tulips were very much there, though of indifferent genus. I had seen them
in the flower beds of the Anantnag Circuit House. I had found them somewhat of emaciated
and stunted, not like the tulips of Netherlands I had seen in photographs –
large and well-fed, so to say. Obviously the Netherlands flowers, exported as
they were even then, were rich in nutrients and the very look of them suggested
that they were very well taken care of. Even the tulips that were grown in my
compound were like the ones of Anantnag Circuit House. They looked like the
country cousins of the ones grown in Netherlands and yet I never discouraged
the gardener from spending his precious efforts from tending them. He used to
say that the quality of the seeds is what matters.
As for daffodils
I had till then not seen any, i.e. I did not know how they looked like. Perhaps
it was a very common spring flower in the West or was not photogenic enough. Or
perhaps it was not considered exotic enough. Tulips were considered romantic
and a young man would go out of the way to procure a tulip bunch to gift to his
sweetheart. There was no such romantic attribute attached with daffodils. Their
fame originated from William Wordsworth’s poem “I wandered lonely as a cloud”,
perhaps the most famous poetic composition in English language.
When daffodils were
mentioned my boss said he had them in his small garden and said he would inform
me when they started blooming. Some months later one morning I got a call from
him saying that the daffodils were in bloom and that I should go over to his
place to see them. Curious as I was, I trotted down to his place in the
evening. As He showed me the flowers the words “oh, hell” escaped from my
mouth. It was so disappointing to see them as I too had them in my yard, only
neither the gardener knew their name and nor did I.
I remember they were pale yellow and droopy,
nothing like what I saw years later in Europe – nice and healthy, and bright golden
yellow. On the fields near Kukenhoff, near Brussels, they were growing wild
and, yes, they were “dancing in the breeze”, as Wordsworth saw them.
Mesmerising as they were, one felt like getting a handful of them but in Europe
flowers blooming in the wild are not plucked; they are allowed to bloom and
wither.
Curiously, none
ever mentioned narcissus as it was seen in profusion in Kashmir growing wild.
Known by a more exotic name in Urdu, that is Nargis, it has its own admirers.
They are off-white in colour with yellow petals in the centre. They are
deliciously fragrant to make any woman of sense happy. Their genus is the same
as daffodils; some even say that while daffodils are male narcissusi are females.
All that was more
than 50 years ago. Now Srinagar boasts of a massive tulip garden below the
Zabarvan Hills along the Dal Lake that offers colourful flowers
in a 30 hectares garden. Curiously, the garden came up during the height
of militancy, giving a good turn to Kashmiri tourism - one very rare positive
from the violence of militancy. The garden has 1.5 million plants and 48
species of flowers. Every year something new is added and flowers like
daffodils, narcissusi, hyacinths, etc. are planted to provide an ornamental
appearance to the garden. This is one asset that is going to pay for itself and
Kashmir Tourism couldn’t be happier about it.
*Photo from internet
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