It is 5 a.m., with the eastern sky blushing a pink glow and the black waters of Ganges seething with an insane undercurrent. Reflecting such exuberance were the flowers in the garden, dancing gently to the morning breeze. Yellow daffodils, red roses, red, pink, purple dahlias, sunflowers yearning for the sunshine to hit them. Accompanying these flowers were huge trees brimming with fruits like red-colored apples, sunshine like yellow mangoes, beautiful round oranges which added to the beauty of the place and made it all the more irresistible for the onlookers to stop by. The enormous garden stood like a royal palace and the flower’s fragrance filled the whole environment. Such a scenic view was disrupted by the appearance of the gardener, in his late 40s, who had come to look upon us. Each day, some of the onlookers who came by stopped and asked for some flowers so as to offer them in the temples.
Each waking day was spent with a long wait, thinking today might be the day when we are plucked and offered to God. We grew up to be sweet and graceful with intentions to adorn our surroundings and to be offered to god. This had increased our value all the more and had made us more and more precious.
My day had also come. An onlooker was standing on the passage beside the park and pointed his finger at me. I fared a goodbye to my family and friends. The impending gardener looked bigger and bigger as he came by. With only a little force, the gardener yanked me and put me in the hands of the onlooker. And then started my journey towards the temple nearby.
It caused me some pain and agony to be separated from my friends but the joy of fulfilling the desires of somebody brought more satisfaction to me than the pain I had suffered. Jubilation echoed in my ears as I was put into a basket. What kept me elated was to be used as a gift to God.
The person threw us on a big idol of god and we could feel the happiness which the person had when he put us on the big golden idol of the lord. Hours afterward, a priest came by. His big hands started to gather all the flowers in a very insensitive way and put us into a basket. This was something unexpected. As he walked by on the road, all of us were quite confused as to what was happening. So when I along with the other flowers were dumped into the roaring Ganga, I was somewhat torn apart. I, who had always dreamt of being divine and clean was one of the causes of polluting the rivers. Thousands of flowers, along with mud, plastic garbage were floating in the river making the river dirtier and making the life of the aquatic organisms more and more difficult.
We flowed along with the water current for hours and hours. Torn and wilted, we kept flowing with the rapid current. I was exhausted and cold, waiting for someone to help us, rather the river which was full of dumped flower waste. It was then that some gentle hands picked us up. From the cold, numbing waters to tender, soft beautiful hands. Just when we thought that this was our end, these people took us to a small house and it was rather the beginning of something good, the beginning of creating an impact. The house had few ladies who were making hand-rolled incense sticks. Most importantly, the secret ingredient of these incense sticks was us, the discarded temple flowers. This experience made me believe that life is a full circle, I ended up here after being offered in a temple and now I again had a chance to be offered to god in the form of incense sticks. It was finally a happy ending for us.
Esscent by Arpan aims to curb river pollution through the production of premium flower-based incense stick. The product is 100% Charcoal free, available in 6 fragrances and is hand-rolled by specially-abled people and rural women, hence giving them an increased source of income.