Mishrana means blend and a coffee table book thus titled features a medley of floral arrangements and recipes from Indian cuisine. Seventy five Ikebana practitioners, a majority of them from Hyderabad, have contributed an Ikebana arrangement and a corresponding recipe each, to commemorate the 75th year of India’s independence and to mark the 70th year of Indo-Japanese relations. Co-authored and co-edited by Rekha Reddy, Indumathy Davloor, Padma Duvvuri and Nirupa Reddy, Mishrana celebrates both Indian cuisine and Ikebana, the Japanese art of floral arrangement.
A Telugu favourite such as the palli karam podi (savoury peanut powder) is complemented by an Ikebana arrangement with bougainvillea blooms, philodendron and upturned peanut shoots to reveal the freshly harvested peanuts, in a vintage brass container on a wooden base. To cite another example, Anjeer basundi (fig delight) is matched with an Ikebana arrangement featuring a fig branch with other flowers, leaves and shoots, placed in ceramic vases.
