DU man helps students say it with roses on V-Day

NEW DELHI: With Valentine’s Day finally here on Saturday, the price of humble roses, which are generally sold for `20 a stick, has shot up to `100.

But a gardener at Delhi University’s Faculty of Arts is helping students beat this price rise by selling freshly-plucked roses at low prices.

Fifty five-year-old Ram Singh (name changed) is the savior of thousands of girls and boys before Valentines’ Day every year and this time too students started lining up near his gardens to get the fresh flowers.

“I don’t get the pocket money to buy expensive gifts and flowers for my girlfriend especially around the Valentines’ Day week when the flower prices increase. Getting roses from kaka is like a tradition here in DU,” said Abhishek Saran, a student of Hindu college.

Singh not only carefully plucks the roses and trims the extra leaves and thorns off the stem, but he also decorates the bunch with the wrapping paper and ribbons of your choice for merely an additional amount of `10.

Singh proudly proclaims that the roses from his garden beats those available in the markets. He carefully tends to his garden and makes sure that the flowers are carefully watered under controlled sunlight and are trimmed with utmost precision.

He said the first time he decided to sell his flowers was around five years back when he spotted a bunch of college boys enter his garden to steal flowers.

“I drove them away. But around February I noticed that every youngster was carrying flowers. I don’t know the importance of the day but this is a great way of making some extra money and to help students,” he smiled.