Flora2000 Contest for October '09

Dear ILites,

This month we are partnering with www.Flora2000.com to bring to you a special contest to make your Diwali a special one. During Diwali all we think of is Diyas, Flowers, Sweets and Savories and whole lot of new clothes to dress up for the occasion. This month, our contest is centered around Flowers, Flowers and more Flowers.

The Contest for October 2009 is....

Flowers that you expected so much, but never received

What is this Contest all about?
At times, we may have expected flowers from a loved one but it never came. This month's contest is for you to express such an experience. Your entry can cover some of the following:

• What was the occasion?
• What flowers were you expecting?
• When and What type of a surprise were you expecting?
• How did she/he make up for it to you?

Contest Timeline
Contest Starts- October 8th 2009
Contest Ends - October 27th 2009

Contest Prizes
First Prize - $100 Gift Certificate from Flora2000.
Second Prize -$50 Gift Certificate from Flora2000.
Check the flora2000 website to see what $100 can get you! (Hint: A lot!)

Save Along the Way!
Indusladies.com members get a special 10% coupon for shopping with flora2000.com.
Use Coupon Code - FLO2IL

Entry Rules/Requirements:

• We are not looking for a generic entry that talks about flowers or bouquets but your personal experience about not receiving flowers when you most expected it.
• Entry should be between 200 and 400 words.
• An ILite can post only 1 entry.
• Entries should be posted only in this thread for it to qualify for the contest.
• Best write up will be selected by a panel of Judges.
• Entries posted in this thread during the contest period - Oct 8th to Oct 27th will only be considered for the contest.

Ladies, what are you all waiting for...go ahead and post your entries on the lush and fragrant nature's bounty - Flowers.

All the Best!!!

Note: Any questions about participation in the contest, do post it here in this thread and we will respond.

Had never felt that what it feels when the person whom you love the most, doesn’t reciprocate to your feelings. Love is pure when it’s all about giving.
But expectations. Don’t they depress the soul of yours when they are not met?
It was on my birthday this August that I was expecting him to at least wish me. Things were not great between us. They never were. It was just that now they were more visible and I wasn’t able to take them anymore. He didn’t, he didn’t wish, so let alone any surprises. When I was being wished by some long lost friends, why was it that I was just waiting for his single call or message? The whole day passed, elapsed.
Exactly a week after my birthday, Maruti was supposed to come to my college for campus recruitment. Least interested I was in it. But I did appear, owing to my family's insistence. At 8 in the morning, jittery faces biting their nails, dressed in black and white formals, were thronging the campus. Out of blue, I get his message wishing me luck for the interview. I would be lying if I say that it didn’t make my day, irrespective of the outcome of the result. Ticking and marking randomly, I cleared the written test. Then, I get his call, enquiring about how it went off and wishing me for the final interview. It was strange, the 'feeling'. I felt like God's favorite child. All through the day his messages were beeping, wanting to know the final result. And when the results were finally out, he was the first person whom I told it about, whom I thought of. I had cleared it. Wasn’t I tears while breaking the news?
The next thing I knew upon reaching home, someone had sent a bouquet. And it was ‘he’ .
Have an iota of idea, why did the things earlier didn’t go the way I wanted them to, but as they say 'things happen best when least expected'.

Flowers hold the fragrance of many a love stories in their blooms!!!Sharing one such story of a friend's grandmom.Not just as a entry to a competition but to share with scores of women out there about the in-depth selflessness a woman is capable of for the love of the man she loves the most and the men of an era who truly believed her to be their better halves!


Grandma loved jasmines and had almost every variety of jasmine in her parents house.Not a day would pass without her adorning them on her hair.In south india,jasmines are strewn on to threads made out of the banana bark called "vazhai naar".Grandma's favourite was "jaadi"malli which has the most heady fragrance amongst jasmines and not available throughout the year like the nitya malli which has comparitively a milder scent.
So if it was the jaadi malli season she would wear them throughout the day ,changing them twice as they would wither away faster.Her craze for the jasmine was well known in her village it seems and while her name was kamtachi,it was soon prefixed with mallippoo and she was known as mallippoo kamatchi !
It was then time for her marriage and when grandma got married ,though she was very proud of the handsome grandpa ,she was a little worried as the groom dint seem very happy!
And lo and behold ,at the first oppurtunity to be alone ,grandpa told her that he just cant stand the scent of jasmines and it would help their relationship if she can avoid it!
Grandma said, it was like the whole world crumbled around her!At 16,her mindset wasnt mature enough to look at the positive side of her life ahead with grandpa.
The fact that this man dint love jasmines simply jolted her and the reality that she has to do without her favourite flowers was too harsh for her to bear!
So when she shifted out to another village with grandpa..she left behind her love for jasmines never to look back .Nor did the noble woman ever express her love for those flowers to her husband!
Years later,once before diwali when all the sons & daughetrs-in-law and grandkids were around grandma had talked abt her love for the jasmine flowers to them during some course of conversations.But dint elaborate on it much.It was a custom that grandpa only bought her diwali saree every year and would buy it just the day before diwali.He would give it to her early morning on diwali day,after her gangasnanam and then together they would distribute the new clothes to others.

That diwali ,when grandmom went to grandpa to take her saree she was in for a surprise.He gave her a string of her favourite jasmine flowers and with tears he said ""forgive me for not having been a sensitive man all these years" and well...there the string of jasmines cemented another lovestory for eternity!
That was the last diwali of theirs together it seems as grandpa passed away after that but not without making grandma promise that she would always adorn the jasmine till her dying day as a symbol of their love which she did(much against the social taboos!) till she passed away at the ripe age of 90!

it was my B'day.mom told me to visit the temple & take blesseing from God.there was only one flower shop which sold flowers for religious purpose as well as special ocassions.as i was approaching the shop i saw my best friend coming out with a bouquet of flowers.as she had called before to wish me & tell me she would be visiting me later that day,i assumed the bouquet was for me.before i could talk with her she sat on rickshaw & went in opposite direction.i bought flowers & went to the temple.
in evening she came with a present but with no bouquet.as i love flowers i would have loved to have some.that day none of my other friends came with flowers.i felt something missing out of my B'day celebration.
Few days after my B'day i asked her where she was going with flowers.she told me about her cousin who had a baby that day & she with her mom were going to visit the cousin.
well,what a lucky baby who opens her eyes to this world the first time & saw the most beautiful thing God made after a child,the flowers.

If someone ever asked me whether I like flowers, I would say only in the garden. But if truth ever be told, I have never received flowers from anyone in my 30 years long life (that's half of my life mind you). No friendship days, no valentines, no birthdays...nothing! It was July 27, my husband's first birthday after marriage and I was in New Delhi while he was in Tokyo. Even though I was missing him like hell I was unable to do anything to make his day special, and I expressed as much to him when he called me. But he just laughed out loud and asked me whether I had received any delivery. He seemed a little surprised that I hadn’t and asked me to keep track because he had something delivered to my house. The whole day passed but no delivery came. So in the evening, I called him to say I did not receive his courier and asked whether it was something important. It was important alright. He was furious. He had a bouquet delivered to my house but the deliveryman couldn’t locate my home address. Now what was the point, if I didn’t receive them on time.To say that I was touched, that I melted and started floating in the air of romantic dreams, that suddenly I was the star of my own production called ‘my wish came true’ is to say the least. To many it may seem overreacting and a tad too overdone but I could have shouted I Love My Husband from the rooftop. The fact that I did not resort to such flamboyant expression of marital romance is because in that same instant I realized the irony of my situation. Look at it this way, it is the first time I am about to receive flowers, that too from my husband, and it is his birthday and what does the deliveryman do? That messenger of love is unable to locate my address.
I have to mention here that next morning I did receive the flowers but that is missing the point.
The core, the moral, the very essence of this story is that finally when I joined my husband in Tokyo a month later, he came to pick me up at the airport with one single Rose in his hand. And that Rose, my dear friends, that singular beautiful creation of God was all it really took to make up for a lifetime.

Hi friends,

It was 2 years back when I was eagerly waiting for my birthday and my loving hubby to bring me lovely red roses.He was extremley preoccupied with his job that i didnot want to remind him also . The day before my birthday was a turnpoint in his career that he had some important meeting with his boss regarding promotion . He was so much involved in all these that i didn't know if he still remembered my birthdate. He was so excited and actually was in a mood to celebrate his success. We went out and had lot of fun. Even then i didn't not want to tell him about my birthday which was the very next day. I thought that if he really considers me as his better half he would send me flowers which he usually does.The next morning i was eagerly waiting for my flowers but alas! nothing came. Everytime the doorbell rang i would ran to the doorstep only to be disappointed. I was literally in tears by evening that was in my bed when he came. He asked if was not keeping well. I didn't reply to him. He said that he has some remedy for my bad mood and handed me out a gift which i had not expected. It was a pair of diamond earrings!!!He said i was worth a million times more than that and it was my birthday gift. Inspite of his busy schedule he had time for me.Those words made me realise that he is really my better half. God !! thank u so much for giving me such a wonderful hubby.

BY THIS ATTITUDE OF HIS.NEXT DAY WHEN I WAS VERY ANGRY HE TOLD ME THAT LAST NIGHT SOMEBODY PICKPOCKETED HIM AND HE LOST MONEY AND CREDIT CARD,HE WAS ALSO UPSET AND THAN WE HAD OUR MORNING COFFEE,THAN HE COMPENSATED EVERYTHING IN A MUCH BIGGER AND BRIGHTER WAY ON 14TH FEB "ON VALENTINE DAY"ASKED ME 2 FEEL AS IF 2DAY IS OUR ANNIVERSARY SO WHAT MONTH IS DIFFERENT REST EVERYTHING IS SAME ,SO WHAT MATTER IS LOVE LOVE AND MORE LOVE.I WAS THRILLEDAND STARTED SINGING

bYE ALL MY FRENZ
POONAMKIAHHI
mY NAME IS POONAM GUPTA AND THIS IS THE STORY OF THE YEAR 2005,ON THE 14 THE DAY OF DECEMBER I CELEBRATE MY 1ST ANNIVERSARY,bUT I CANNOT FORGET MY HUBBY WISHED ME BARE HAND NO FLOWERSNO GIFTSNO CARDS.I WAS DEVASTATED

Everybody loves pretty flowers, even bugs and birds. All of us like to look at those pretty flowers blooming all around the garden, in the park etc. Since my childhood, “Rose” is my favourite flower. I love all colours of rose and that was the reason you could find every colour of rose in my garden. You can say rose is my weakness.

My birthday falls on 10th of October and my dear husband always pretended that he is confused with my birthday date. It was my first birthday after marriage and I expected my husband that he would atleast remember my birthday and would be the first to wish me with a bunch of roses. As usual it was morning of 10th Oct, I was pretty excited and was preparing breakfast for my husband. On the contrary he simply woke up, took his breakfast and left for the office. I was a bit low because he did’nt bothered to remember and wish me for my birthday. In the afternoon I went to the temple to seek God’s blessing. In the evening when my husband returned from his office, he was smiling naughtily and asked me to get ready as he needed to visit his friends family. I was surprised and at the same time annoyed that how could he forget his dear wife’s birthday. Anyway I got dressed up and we left for their home. After 15 minutes of drive he stopped the car infront of a hotel, we went inside and to my surprise, he had thrown a big birthday bash for me. All my dear friends and relatives were invited, I was overjoyed to meet all of them. It was then when I got to know that my dear husband spent the whole day busy preparing for the surprise party. My husband very elegantly wished me “Happy Birthday”, I could have not asked for anything more. He had made my day.

But still I don’t know why, my eyes were looking for the roses, but couldn’t find one. With the passage of time he got to know about my weakness i.e. roses. Tomorrow its again 10th October, and my second birthday after marriage, (So, friends should I expect a birthday full of roses this year or not?)

Hi Mam, HAPPY DIWALI WISHES

1. The occasion time is Chilled weather

2. Jasmine

3. The chilled weather climate, power cut time the candles are lighting at the time my mom taking flowers and close my eyes, the flowers smell i got the person am very happily. My favorite flower. I Love this flower.

That flower smelling is super

4. She make up is Very finable (Fairy)

She put in Simple make up and see very gently

Thanks for all

M. Bhavani

Hi Guneet : You have well quoted your experience 'things happen best when least expected'.
Sakhhi : Your post moistened my eyes, such a nice love story.
Mahajan : I too would have mistook that the bouquet is for me if I was in your place:)
AmanPreet : Glad that finally you received a bouquet. May be you now love flowers in bouquet too;)
Anandhi : Wow!!! your happiness is echoing in your post:)
Saswathi : Advance happy bday wishes dear. May be you can post one more if you dont recive the roses;)
Just joking, hope you recieve many and many roses tommorrow form the love of your life.