On several occasions people gift bouquets to chief guests and wedded couples, on birthdays, to retiring employees, teacher’s day, place them in the house and so forth. Undoubtedly flowers look pretty and colourful in the midst of ferns and leaves and jacketed in cellophane paper. For extra effect or for non-fragrant flowers, the flower seller would spray a perfume. Bouquets may be comparatively cheaper and faster to buy than a thoughtful gift. Unfortunately, at the end of the day or in couple of days, bouquets end up in the garbage bin, as the flowers start to wither. Let us not compare bouquets with wreaths which are symbolic as these decay along with the deceased persons. It would be meaningful to replace bouquets with potted plants or a bowl of fresh or dry fruits. These would be useful to the receivers. As the Irish playwright and critic George Bernard Shaw quipped, when asked if he does not like plucked flowers, "I like flowers, I also like children, but I do not chop their heads off and keep them in bowls of water around the house!"
SRIDHAR D IYER, Caranzalem
