The Flower Fields, Jan 14th

Driving from Jagatpur to Palla, enroute are fields and fields of flowers. Looking like marigolds, and called 'Zafri' locally, they are not 'Gaindas' I was told. Gaindas only grow after April. But the flower fields mat the ground with vivid mustard and yellow. Each plant gives a new crop of flowers every ten days, when they are plucked and sold at ten rupees a kilo. Many people had queued up to buy sack fulls of flowers even as the women plucked them off the filed. I talked to them. Some would make garlands and sell them on roadside crossings. A common sight in Delhi. Bus and truck drivers buy them to adorn the bonnets and dashboards of their beasts of livelihood. Others sell them to temple go-wers, the garland with the largest flowers fetching upto five rupees each. Many came here each day to buy fresh flowers. What did not sell at the spot was sold at the Delhi 'mandi' at Fatehpuri.

However the women workers were worried. There was word going arond that the land would soon the aquired by the Govt. For what they asked? This is so beautiful and in any case it floods in the monsoon. Little did they guess that there was this land craze everywhere. Maybe the commonwealth games? I told them to enjoy and live off the land while they can, who knew about tomorrow these days? They were silent. I brought a couple of kilos of these glorious gifts of the river, and returned home, wondering about the future and the changing landscape. Sadly.