Shyam’s father, Bapu, was a devout worshipper of God. He had a deep, unwavering devotion to Lord Ganapati. Never once did he offer withered or wilted durva grass to Ganapati. He would make every effort to gather only the freshest, tenderest blades of durva for the deity. The daily worship required many flowers, and it was Shyam’s task to collect them. Different flowers were needed for the rituals. This love for flowers, this habit of gathering them for worship, was in Shyam’s very blood. But it was his mother who taught him to truly love the flowers themselves.

At that time, school was held both in the morning and the evening. To collect flowers, Shyam would rise before dawn. Before leaving for school in the morning, he would fill a basket with fragrant oleander blossoms and bring them home. After returning from school, his first task was to sort through the flowers. These sorted flowers would then be offered by his father at the temple, placed at the feet of the deity’s idol. In the evening, before school let out, he would set about plucking jasmine flowers. He would go from house to house in the neighborhood, gathering them. Other children would often join him. Sometimes, in the excitement of gathering flowers, quarrels would break out among the children. Those who had collected...

Shyamali, with her friends, was stringing together a garland of jasmine flowers.

It was a holiday. Usually, when there was school, there was little time to go and pick flowers. But on holidays, as soon as they found the time, the children would go out to gather flowers. Each child would try to collect the best flowers for themselves. The previous holiday, Shyam had not managed to get even a single flower. After he had picked his share, the other children had gathered all the flowers together and taken them away. Because of this, Shyam was upset with the other children. He resolved in his mind that on this holiday, he would not let them have even a single flower. So, even before dawn, he decided to go and pick jasmine flowers. These flowers bloom in the evening and remain as buds until then.

On that holiday, Shyam was the first to leave the house, at around three in the morning. Here and there, searching, he plucked all the jasmine buds he could find. He brought them home. He filled a vessel with water and, thinking they would bloom, placed the buds in it and covered them with a cloth. He did not tell his mother about this. As usual, when his mother asked him if he had gone to pick flowers, Shyam told her that he had already picked and covered the flowers.

She told Shyam to go and bring the flowers. Shyam, running eagerly, went to the vessel, but the buds had not bloomed. He took those half-opened, unbloomed buds and, pouring them into his mother’s lap, he was deeply disappointed by their state.

It