Different hues of Shimla Summer Festival

Shriniwas Joshi

Aflower show is the forerunner of Shimla Summer Festival.  The space around the statue of Indira Gandhi on The Ridge is allotted to the Shimla Amateur Garden and Environment Society (SAGES) by the Municipal Corporation and the district administration, which organises the festival, provides tent, tables, electricity and other facilities.

This year, Shimla Summer Festival had a different hue. It was like a carnival with activities spread all over The Mall. Wherever there was space, dancers from the NZCC performed. For the evening show, The Ridge remained the best suited. I had written about this festival in 2011: “For heaven’s sake, leave The Ridge as the lung of the town, it is charming and attractive without your ‘make-up’. Think of locality level Shimla Festival — Lakkar Bazaar, Sanjauli, Boileauganj, Summer Hill, Bharari, Vikasnagar, New Shimla, Kusumpti. Let all these places buzz with activities during the festival days and that will be the ideal Shimla festival. Give prime time and money to local artists; let folk groups, jhamakara, giddha, dandaras, ghurai, hirnattar, naati, dhaja, kayang etc. come from all districts and perform. I believe that the tourists and the natives will prefer festivity in their vicinity to the frozen TV-cooked meal unwrapped for the people on The Ridge.” 

The door, this year, stood ajar, if not fully opened, when activities had gone out of The Ridge. My idea was to touch the peripheries and that day may not be far off. However, the presentations of dances at various spots including naati by about a 1,000 dancers on The Ridge would satisfy the person, who had once written in the visitor’s book of the flower show, ‘the only show for the day creature’.

In the flower show this year, there were 106 participants with more than 350 entries. SAGES believes in the maxim of jurisprudence, ‘justice should not only be done, but it should appear to have been done’ and so invites non-SAGES judges to the show for an unbiased, fair, impartial and open-minded judgment, as the exhibits in the show vied each other for a position. The judges this year were Bharti Kashyap and Rajesh from the University of Horticulture, Nauni, Solan; Durlabh Singh Puri, an expert and floriculturist from Solan and DK Gupta from the State Directorate of Horticulture

It was heartening that the first visitors to the show were NN Vohra, former Governor of Jammu and Kashmir and his wife. Vohra wrote in the visitor’s book — “Very happy to see such a large, diverse and attractive presentation of all kinds of flowers. My compliments to the orgainsers!” There was continuous rush of visitors to the show for the two days it was on. A couple of nurseries had also been allotted booths, which made good sale of flower plants. It shows that the number of flower lovers in Shimla has been increasing year by year. I liked the display by the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, in which there were flowers of all species that could be grown here.

The best exhibit was a Sedum burrito brought to the show by the gardener of East Bourne Hotel. It belongs to the family of crassulaceae. It is sculptural succulent for indoors at greenhouse or sunroom. In Shimla temperature, it can be placed outdoors in the summer season. Native to Mexico, it is now grown throughout the warmer temperate regions of both northern and southern regions. It was brought to the show as hanging succulent with stems closely covered by fleshy, cocoon-shaped, grey-green leaves. It prefers full sunlight but tolerates filtered sun. It is to be watered regularly allowing the soil to dry out before watering again. It is also called burro’s tale. A burro is a small donkey used as a pack animal. A donkey is burro in the United States. In UK and in India also, it is called donkey’s tail.

The State Horticulture Department had put up the stalls of stone fruit at Lieutenant General Daulat Singh Park, where a new variety of plumcot was on display. It is a cross between a plum and an apricot. Earlier, a variety named nectarine was developed, which was actually a peach, but looked like plum. It is prunus persica, smooth skin peach of the family of Rosaceae. It is now freely available in the market, but plumcot was a totally new variety for me.

Additional Chief Secretary (Horticulture) RD Dhiman was the chief guest of the flower show and gave away prizes to the winners and informed the house about Pollution Abating Plants Abhiyan (PAPA), a campaign launched by the HP State Pollution Control Board, through which 8 lakh saplings would be planted in 2019 at various sites of Himachal Pradesh to save the environment. I believe that the survival of plants is more important than growing these.

Tailpiece

If someone throws a stone at you, throw a flower at him, but remember, the flower should be in a pot.