Hi! Apologies for not keeping the blog updated. There are many excuses, some of them quite valid, but let’s not get into that! Last week we had the Chrysanthemum show in Chandigarh. On display were 9,000 pots comprising more than 238 varieties of chrysanthemum.

Now, I am sure that you all know that the name comes from “krus anthemon” which means gold flower in Greek. Yellow is the original colour of the chrysanthemum flower, and its origins date back to before 5000BC.

In India, the yellow marigold, or guldaudi, is widely used for religious functions and for garlands. In China, the flower was venerated so much that they named their royal throne after it. In Japan, it occupied a place of pride on imperial weapons and flag.

At the Chandigarh festival, I met a lady who had seen the national chrysanthemum festival in Japan, which is held in September. She felt that the Chandigarh one held more than its own as compared to the Japanese festival that she saw.

Virinder Sharma, an industrialist who was participating for the 13th year in a row, bagged 36 prizes in the 12 categories of the show. This is for the first time that any single person has bagged the prizes in all the categories. Among other prize-winning displays was one by a local gurdwara, and a school. I photographed chrysanthemum flowers over three days and they definitely brought laughter and happiness in my life, as Feng Shui says they are meant to.