KARACHI CHRONICLE: What would our lives be like without roses?

The annual flower show organised by the Horticulture Society of Pakistan has become a show without a soul. It is more of a posh fashion show of plants and people as the emphasis is on prettiness, decorative themes, colour and magnificent collection of exotic, imported flowers.
Flowers that are relevant to our culture, such as the rose, and the national flower the jasmine, especially local cultivars, do not interest society horticulturists who are members of the HSP. I do not wish to belittle the efforts of the HSP, in fact I admire them and always will admire them. They have created amateur interest in horticulture, they have popularised the use of flower displays in homes, offices and government functions, the speakers table at seminars, the dinner table for participants of seminars and so forth. It is to them we owe this civilised touch.
Flowers figure in all civilised societies but the manner in which they are used is dictated by cultural norms. In our part of the world which is dominated by the Muslim ethos, the rose and the jasmine are flowers used profusely, for decoration, for making garlands and grave covers, for wedding sehras, (not out of fashion) and of course for their aromatic and medicinal qualities long recognised as efficacious and anti-depressants. These flowers figure in fine literature, they are used in idiomatic expressions and are the language of love.
In our culture it is the fragrance of flowers that takes priority over prettiness, while at the annual flower show the importance of fragrance is nil. Roses are cultivated for use in vases and awarded prizes for the length of their stems and the colour and quality of the bloom. Flowers without fragrance are eye-pleasing, not soul-pleasing.
The rose without scent is symptomatic of the direction of Pakistani modern society. We recognise only western ways as being the true definition of modern. Hence the modern Romeo will give his love a dozen long-stemmed roses. The beloved will not stick her nose in the bunch to breath in the delicious heady scent, as there is none, she will stick the flowers in a vase.
In the West they have separated flowers from their scent. Flowers for commercial sale are nearly all without scent. If you want flowery fragrance you buy it bottled as perfume or cologne.
A modern Pakistani does not patronise the fragrant rose. In fact the bottled scent of roses is not popular either. It is fashionable to use lavender, verbena and lemon fragrances in perfumes, and even in fragrancing such things as the floor-cleaning disinfectant, candles and airsprays to freshen the musty atmosphere created by air-conditioning. But the smell of roses is abhorred.
The rose scent is considered to be old fashioned. Modern people would not be caught dead sprinkling rose attar on themselves. They do not want it sprinkled on their dead bodies, literally. They would not mind their shroud to smell of musk, but rose scent is no-no.
I think there are only old people like myself, who are also modern in outlook, who still use glycerine and rose water as a body lotion. None of those store-bought lotions are as effective as this home-made lotion. You have to mix it yourself using half-and-half of the two ingredients or three parts glycerine to one part rose water. As I have dry skin only in winter, my lotion lasts long. The last batch made three years ago has just finished, and to the last drop there was the gentle, light fragrance of rose in it. For people who are interested, ask the hakimi or herb shop to give you sey-atishi rose water. Sey-atishi means the rose water has received three infusions of roses to develop the fragrance.
It is always a delight to visit shops selling products made of herbs and roots and flowers for medicinal use or attar. In these shops the rose is the queen. Roses are used for making a conserve called gulkund, oil, attar and rose water. These shops abound in the old city as well as societies developed to the left of Defence Housing Authority. It figures, since most of those who claim to be oh, so modern that they have forgotten how to read and write Urdu, live in DHA which I have dubbed "bey-hiss ilaqa" or soulless region.
However, taking their queue from the West, which is once again discovering the benefits of herbs and flowers and natural fragrances, the hakimi shops and attar shops are infiltrating the soulless region too. Interestingly, the products sold in these shops mostly are of foreign manufacturer, including the attar of roses.
Roses grown for use in traditional products are described as wild roses. It is an irony that the HSP is not interested in them, while at the same time the members are passionate about commercially developing floriculture. Though their sentiments are laudable, they are out of touch with reality.
They ought to think about developing the already-existing commercial cultivation of the rose, or wild rose as it is dubbed. The indigenous rose verities already have a huge export market which can be developed with the use of such technology as greenhouse and cold-storage in places where the so-called wild roses cannot be grown. The demand for indigenous roses is on the rise in the Middle East and European markets by manufacturers of perfumes and medicines. The most popular common verities are known locally as gulkund, gulab and baramasi. They are extensively cultivated in Hyderabad and Chakwal districts of Sindh and Punjab respectively.
But, I suppose, since only the poor farmer will be the chief beneficiary of promoting indigenous rose cultivation, the hoity-toity members of the HSP are not interested in giving even a passing thought to our roses. For the poor farmer, life will perhaps never be a bed of roses.
Just how unthinking they are in the HSP will evident from a talk with a member. When asked where were the indigenous roses, she complained they had weak stems, they could not be used in display, they wilted too soon, they had too many thorns. You get the picture? She was only thinking of rose for the modern Romeo's boquette and for sticking in the vase. That is the only purpose of roses for HSP members.