Nothing prepares me for the cheery sight that awaits me in one part of Varapuzha. It is just after 9.30am on a muggy day; I hear the murmur of women before I see them. Lakshmi Murali emerges from behind a gap in a compound wall and calls me over. All I see is a plot with a few coconut palms, overgrown grass, weeds and at a distance the glistening Periyar before I see them. “The flowers are here,” she says, pointing to neat rows of yellow and orange marigold flowers in full bloom, partitioned from the rest of the plot by bright saris which form a billowing wall.
The 20 members of the Vanadurga Labour Group in Varapuzha have spent the last two-and-a-half months, 80 plus days, nurturing their patch of marigolds. The flowers are in full bloom, a week away from harvest. “Rain is a worry,” say Jyothsana Ramesh and Lakshmi. Excess water would cause the blooms to weigh down and break; if plucked they rot. The rain gods, they say, have been generous. The plants with blooms are not strong enough to withstand heavy rain. Getting the soil ready came with its challenges, on account of it being marshy.
Marigold may not have been traditionally cultivated commercially in Kerala in the past, but thanks to farmers and government initiatives, Kerala grows its own marigolds rather than depend entirely on states such as Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
