The Crown Flower

On seeing the gardener water the roses, lilies, and jasmine flower plants arranged neatly in the planting beds in the political leader’s beautiful house, a crown flower that came up in the empty land opposite the house asked another crown flower “No one ever waters us with love like that!”

  “This is called willpower. We are alive due to our willpower. They survive due to other’s willpower”, the second flower said.

The flower-like landlady would have her bath and in wet hair would pluck these beautiful flowers from the plant beds, decorate them on a plate and take to the temple daily. These flowers would look at the crown flowers growing outside with pity. The crown flowers would get irritated at the behavior of those flowers.

Election day was close-by and so was Mahashivratri festival. The politician got out of his centrally air-conditioned house to visit far-off villages and was hugging every common man out there. Dressed in a Kurta with foreign perfume, he would thank his fortune whenever he would hug a hard-working person used to the bad odour of their own sweat.

Even the landlady avoided the beautiful flowers in the garden and walked, in her wet hair, towards the crown flowers growing outside. Happiness spread over the crown flowers, with their small red mouth and five petals. The flowers were exulting at their luck. The landlady plucked the flowers and decorated them on a plate. Today was the day for the crown flowers to be proud. They smiled and looked at the flowers in the plant-beds but were surprised to see them smiling suspiciously instead of getting irritated.

The election campaigning had come to an end. The politician was resting his tired legs, dipping them in warm water. The landlady was trying to wash away the milk of the crown flowers using distilled water.

The election results were out. By Lord Shiva’s grace, the leader had won and became a minister. He called the people from the city corporation. Pointing towards the empty land opposite his house, the minister said “Clean them and plant some beautiful plants. These crown flowers don’t look good opposite my house”.