Celebrating flowers

A world without flower is simply unimaginable. But why? Flowers are not foods that satisfy one's hunger. Yet if there were no flowers, this world would be far less an attractive place than it is now. True, the majority of people do not often come across flowers in their day-to-day life, let alone developing a habit of gathering a few for a particular purpose. But there are flower lovers who cannot think of life without keeping a close company of their most favourite flora or vegetation. This is not to speak of those ordained to carry out religious rituals where flowers are a prerequisite. 
Appreciation for all things beautiful is ingrained in human soul. Flowers, barring a few, are a thing of beauty and to go by John Keats, such a thing is a joy for ever. Some of the flowers do not only give the impression that they are fashioned in heaven but also cast a magic spell with their sweet scent. Regal and gorgeous in look and equally enchantingly captivating in smell, some are breathtakingly lively. A few flowers are majestic in their look. A lotus is one. But its smaller cousin shapla (water lily) can be ethereal when thousands of them bloom across a vast water expanse under moonlight.  
This part of the world boasts a variety of beautiful flowers with unrivalled sweetness of smell. Each one is known for its distinctive fragrance. Apart from a few available in the city, they remain out of sight of most people. Such an idea might have prompted some organisers to hold a three-day flower festival on the Bangla Academy premise. This surely is a nice initiative on the part of all who have lent their helping hands to make the event a grand success. To familiarise the Dhakaites with literally a thousand variety of flowers makes more sense than it appears at a first look. 
People are gradually moving away from aesthetic appreciation. More importantly, different types of advanced gismos are keeping them so busy that they are left with hardly any time to pause and appreciate the world around them. Also there is a dangerous tendency to get away from one's one roots. If the earlier generation struggled for survival and did not care much about knowing the plants, trees, birds and animals around them, the new generation has developed a passion for almost all things foreign. The flora and fauna of their native land hardly figure when they imagine their place on this planet. Just think of the craze for night queen's coming to flowering in someone's garden.
This leaves a yawning gap in finding a mooring for any people anywhere. Love for the land is incomplete without the appreciation of Nature that sustains a human being or any living organism. One's true identity is decided by the surrounding in which one discovers oneself. 
So celebrating flowers should instil in them a sense of direction -one that is essential to find their relationship with the place they were born in. Apart from rose, tuberose, beli, ganda and a few other flowers, their familiarity with sheuli, malati, champa, sonalu, aparajita, ashoke, shimul, hijal, mandar, kanchon, karabi and a host of other flowers can inspire them to discover a realm they never had any idea of. In that traditional sense, instead of 'flower fest' it would be better to call it a phuler mela (flower fair). It is said not for nothing that one who loves flowers, children and birds can hardly commit a crime. Let the young people here develop the appreciation for the finest creations the world has ever known.