By Sharda Zaman

'Apa, Akta Mala Niben' this is a common asking by the street children to the car passengers or pedestrians in most of the metropolitan cities of Bangladesh.

Which flowers are sold in the street, 'Shiuli' is one of them and its sweet scent was giving me some refreshment to my nose while I was visiting some streets recently.

I saw some children are selling just bloomed white flowers such as Shiuli (night-flowering jasmine), Belie (Jasmine), Rajanigandha (Tuberose), Dolonchapa (White ginger lily), Gandharaj (Cape jasmine), Bakul (Bullet Wood), Hasna henna (Night Queen), Jui, etc.

Bangladesh is blessed with so many night-blooming flowers to soothe our minds and body. Shiuli represents winter. We could not feel due to pandemic but this year life seems normal or we could say we are trying to turn into the normal way. It’s time to restart.

The botanical name of 'Shiuli ' is Nyctantes arbor-tristis. It is from the Oleaceae family. Its Genus is Nyctantes and it belongs to the N. arbor-tristis species. Shiuli blooms only during the winter season in Bangladesh. Flower lovers wait all season long for this cherished flower. Its color, look, brightness, and most importantly its fragrance captivates us immensely. The scenery of Shiuli flowers dropping and lying under its tree is just breathtaking. The serenity it provides to our eyes and mind all day long is everlasting.

To collect more flowers from the Shiuli tree, when it is shaken, that scene is also mind-boggling. Nowadays these scenes are becoming rare day by day because of the overpopulation, urbanization, and materialistic lifestyles of people in the cities. These missing small but important parts of life are making us inhuman thus our family, society, and nonetheless, our hard-earned country is suffering manifold. Most city dwellers who seem always very busy have very little time for this kind of unimportant, baseless, emotional thing and that is a major point for our suffering and unhappiness.

The race for achieving everything in whatever way in a very short span of time is our main motto in life nowadays. For this elusive life, we are ready to sacrifice everything, even our relatives and friends. That's why our suffering physically and mentally both aggravated but the sad part of this story is that our beloved children suffer the most. The COVID-19 pandemic had a heavy toll on all our life but the greatest loss is suffered by our children.

Now a days, all are busy on WhatsApp, Facebook, or Twitter rather than planting, gardening. Some of us are still alive in our belief that our children will be friendly with those flowers which have a great impact on our environment.

'Tumi Roj Bikele, Amar Bagane, Ful Nitee Aste Janina Tumi Phul Na Amake Beshi Valobastey ' who is the singer of this song? Oh! Kumar Biswajit. Great! Where are those songs which are written to describe flowers and their importance in our daily life ?

Nevertheless, the use of flowers has increased manifold in our social life and we are growing different kinds of flowers in plenty to be exported but the love for it diminishes from most of our heart that is the thing we are worried about. Our Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (SM) always inspired people to buy flowers even if they have a small amount of money.

The writer is a content writer