Mitali celebrates the beauty of a Chinese flower that bloomed in her garden, in China, many moons back. An exclusive for Different Truths.
Long ago, when I had a garden, flowers sang with children’s shouts, birds’ notes, quiet-pawed cats. Kois played in the pond under mauve flowers on strange trees — I did not know their names. They called one yue liang hua or moon flower from Shanghai — used it on the dashboard to give a whiff of what was then home. It was a bit like jasmine, a fragrant caress of nostalgic olfaction. Yue liang hua, jasmines, tuberoses, sweet peas beat butterfly wings to the gardens I have known. Paradise was a garden too.
Photos by Mitali Chakravarty
Mitali Chakravarty is a citizen of the world. She writes and edits with the hope of creating an equitable Earth that transcends artificial barriers created by manmade institutions. In that spirit, she runs an online journal called Borderless. She has been widely anthologised and published. Her life revolves as a mother and wife around her two sons and husband.
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