The Rose
The rose is a perennial flower shrub or vine of the genus rosa. It belongs to the family rosaceae, that contains over 100 species and comes in a variety of colours. The rose is the best presentation that a lover can make to his / her loved one.
I CAN still vividly recollect the rose bud tucked delicately in the third button of Prime Minister Nehru’s sherwani. I can still remember Dr Zakir Hussain enjoying the stroll on the copses of Jamia Millia and often sitting near the rose shrubs admiring the beauty of the king of flowers – the rose.
In today’s world which is permeated with hatred, deceit, immoral politics, deception and ‘Sach Ka Samna’s, we have forgotten to listen to the melodies of the koyel sitting on the jamun tree; we have forgotten to admire the golden showers of the amaltas in our backyard that makes summers beautiful and the tea rose shrub we had purchased when we last visited the ‘Garden of Five Senses’ at Mehrauli. We have become indifferent to the earthen jar in which we had put the cute plant and placed it at a vantage point near the window and which now produces a few rose buds despite our neglect.
Let us forget all about our vice and talk about beauty today. As some poet had said – a flower that blooms for just a day is better than oak tree that stands for a hundred years and fails to provide even proper shade. Just look at a blooming rose and you forget, for a moment, all your worries. A rose is a perennial flower shrub or vine of the genus rosa. It belongs to the family rosaceae, that has over 100 species and comes in a variety of colours. Their species are average shrubs and climbers which can reach heights of up to 20m. Their stems are usually armed with sharp thorns. Thorns are modified branches or stems, whereas these sharp protrusions on a rose are modified epidermal tissues (prickles). Most rose species are native to Asia, with smaller numbers of species native to Europe, North America and Northwest Africa. Species from different parts of the world easily hybridise, which has given rise to the many types of garden roses.
The name rose comes from French, itself from Latin, rosa, which was borrowed from Oscan, from Greek rhodion (Aeolic wrodion), from the old Persian word ‘flower’. The steam-extracted essential oil from rose flowers has been used in perfumes for centuries. Rose water, made from the rose oil, is widely used in India, Iran and Arab countries in many cuisine. Selective rose petals are dried and made into marmalade popularly known as gulqand. Dried petals are brewed for tea, primarily for their high vitamin C content.
The rose is the best presentation that a lover could give to his/her loved one. Everyone, who has a heart, has some fond memories of roses. As one Hindi poet said – “Mujhe tod lena ban mali dena us path par tu phek, matra bhoomi par paran charrhane jis per jayen veer anek.” They say- “Beauty lies in the eyes of beholder.” The rose doesn’t need any beholder as the English poet Sarah Wilson Middleton wrote in the poem the ‘The wayside rose’:
Out on the old highway it grows,
