To celebrate the charm of the popular flower, genda phool, art curator Himanshu Verma’s six-month-old campaign ‘Genda Phool’ is fighting to preseve three of the oldest flower markets of the city — at Mehrauli, Chandni Chowk and Connaught Place — which are in danger of being uprooted and relocated to a single unit market in Ghazipur by the government.
“Though hailed from Mexico, genda phool has now become an intrinsic part of Indian cultural and traditional festivity. Be it a wedding ceremony or demise ritual, the flower is known to spread positivity and is popular as a beautiful motif. Each of the three flower markets are beautiful and have a distinct and unique character, which will be lost once they are relocated in a strange building on the outskirts of the city. And as marigold flowers comprise 70 per cent of the business of the flower markets, we decided to start this life-long project to save them too,” he informs.
To make it a successful venture, the project has also formulated various interesting activities like online poster exhibition and genda merchandise with genda block-print fabrics and tees, in which many designers, young professionals and students have participated.
Swati Janu, an architect, who initially started working with this campaign as part of her office assignment, will now continue to be part of it till the end. “It’s more about showing responsibility towards your city. As an architect, one has to see the urban space and whether it’s justified to remove them. I have been working on the research part of the project. Though it gets a little hectic to handle both work and this, it is satisfying to do something for the city’s heritage,” she says.
Swati thinks removing the markets from their current place is not the right solution. “Instead, the government should provide better facilities at such places. The Mehrauli flower market has a bigger space, it should be utilised for a cold storage and nurseries,” she adds.
To spread the message, graphic designer Deepika Arora is making posters with catchy and witty punch lines. She says, “The love for flowers and old memories of the flower mandi during college days encouraged me to be a part of this project. My friends and I used to hang out near the flower markets in CP. I even made a small documentary on them. These are culturally vibrant markets. The thought of them being removed horrifies me.” She adds, “Instead of shifting them to the landfill Ghazipur area, license should be given to rebuild the historic home for flowers.”