This is a Guest Post by Madhumita Mazumdar, who discovered an intriguing story behind the flowers and foliage planned for the city she lives in, Gandhinagar, Gujarat. Photograph by Partha Chowdhury shows an avenue of Amaltas ( Cassia Fistula ) in Dwarka, Delhi One of the many things I loved about Myshkin Chand Rozario, one of the enigmatic protagonists of Anuradha Roy’s novel All the Lives We Never Lived , was his job as Horticultural Superintendent in the small town of Muntazir in the foothills of the Himalayas. Though often derided as “glorified gardner” Myshkin took immense pride in what he believed was his precious bequest to the little town -- its rows of carefully planted sheltering and flowering trees along major roads and pathways. He knew well he where he had to plant the white and purple orchids, the flaming red Gulmohurs, the Amaltases, the brilliantly hued kachnars, the softer pastels of the resham ruis. The streets were colour coded around the images their n...
