Musical orchids
Strange to say, orchids at a farm near Guwahati, the capital of Assam, are indeed swaying to bhajans. And going by their brisk growth, they seem to be enjoying every moment of it. Every morning for long hours, 100,000 orchids at the ICL Flora Exotica, a division of the India Carbon Limited, are treated to devotional music rendered by Anup Jalota, India´s top bhajan singer.
Speakers have been placed across the five-acre farm so that the plants can hear the classical crooner. The audience is made up of rare orchids belonging to species like Dendrobiums, Oncidiums, Mokaras, Aranda and Aranthera.
"It is amazing – we never thought that the orchids would be responding to the music so well," says a jubilant Rakesh Himatsingka, the managing director of India Carbon. "We are so encouraged by the success, we are planning to expand our farm and go for exports very soon."
The trouble-torn Northeast of India is a storehouse of rare tropical orchids specific to this region. Fully 750 of the existing 1200 orchid species in the world occur naturally in the Northeast´s dense jungles. Orchid cutflowers, especially of the tropical variety, are in heavy demand in Japan, the Philippines, the United Kingdom and the Gulf countries where they sell for as much as three dollars apiece.
It is obvious that everything possible should be done to enhance the export potential of the orchid farms. And if it takes bhajans, then so be it.