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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
