It smells roses all over here

What's in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet, said William Shakespeare.

That may be true, perhaps a touch too simplistic, though. Rose has come to symbolize human emotions, life and death. It has a queer connect with human anatomy- cheeks can have a rosy hue and lips the tenderness of a rose petal. When one's heart is aflutter with pining of love, a rose becomes the ready catalyst between lovers.
When someone said, "A rose is a rose is a rose", he was probably making an understatement. Rose has myriad avatars and one only needs to visit Chandigarh's famous Rose Garden to realise this.

Claimed to be the largest rose garden in Asia, there are 1600 varieties of roses grown in this vast expanse of landscaped, lush greenery in the heart of the city.
In a way, Rose Garden manifests the spirit of the city's founding architect, Le Corbusier, whose architecture was inspired by the theme of "sun, space and verdure."
While designing the city in the 1950s, Corbusier left major chunks of open spaces to be developed as gardens and parks to serve as lungs of the city. Over the years, Chandigarh has acquired the sobriquet of "City Beautiful" and "City of Gardens" thanks to the architect's original vision.

Set up in 1967 and named after former President, Zakir Hussain, Rose Garden is spread over 42 acres, and has become a major tourist attraction besides providing a soothing ambience for the denizens of the city looking to spend a leisurely evening. An artificial stream meanders through the garden. Curved wooden footbridges arching over the stream link various promenades.

As one takes a walk along its promenades, neatly laid beds of roses of various hues of red, light pink, dark pink white and yellow, present a colourful mosaic. Some of the flower beds are exotically named like- "Careless love", "Love me tender" and "Arabian Nights"
There are natural and hybrid varieties-- many of them named after famous personalities like John Kennedy and Princess Dianna-- which incidentally is one of the most fragrant variety of roses and Queen Elizabeth--which is a darkened pink variety.
Jaipal, supervisor of the Rose Garden, says the visitors are particularly enamoured by the Queen Elizabeth variety and Papa Meilland and Montezuma which belong to the Grandiflora family of roses -- a large flowered variety.
Some of the other famous varieties include, Bella Donna, La Belle, Cadillac, Bugatti, Bordeaux, Master class etc.

"We are introducing new varieties of roses brought from several parts of India and abroad from time to time," he says, adding 350 new varieties are being introduced in the garden. Normally, it takes up to one year for the new plants to bring to fruition.
Every spring season brings along a joie de vivre that manifests in the hosting of a unique Rose festival, said to be the biggest showcase of rose varieties in India, at the Garden. Nearly 50 exotic varieties of roses were exhibited at this year's festival organised in the first week of March.

The three-day extravaganza, which is a big draw for tourists, includes flower exhibits, painting and photography competitions related to the roses and cultural evenings. A wide array of flowers is showcased for different varieties of flowers.

Toddlers and small kids participated in the Rose Prince and Rose Princess competition-- one of the highlights of the festival. Over 450 children from various groups participated in this year's competition. Another major draw was the kite flying competition.
Tens of thousands of visitors made a beeline to the Rose Garden during the three-day festival. The evenings were reserved for cultural extravaganza including performances by Bollywood artistes and singers. This year singers, Koena Mitra and Kunal Ganawala, regaled the audience with live performance. A fashion show scripted by Bollywood designers, Libas and Anamika Rawal, was organised parading the beauties from the modeling world. A troupe from Goa performed dancing stunts.
 After the end of three days of razzmatazz, the city denizens eagerly await for the smell of roses next spring.

 As one comes out of the garden, refreshed, one reflects on the saying, "The rose speaks of love silently, in a language known only to the heart."