Q1.
Why was Ananda reminded of the poem ‘Pushp ki Abhilasha’?
Answer
Because of the flowers she saw being offered at the War Memorial in Chandigarh.
Ananda writes that while visiting the Bougainvillea Garden in Sector 3, she found a crowd “offering flowers and prayers” at the War Memorial in the heart of the garden. Remembering “my visit where everyone was dedicating flowers as a mark of respect to our soldiers”, she thought of Makhanlal Chaturvedi's poem.
Why that poem, of all poems: in ‘Pushp ki Abhilasha’ a flower refuses every ordinary honour — it does not want to be woven into a beautiful girl's ornaments, or into a lover's garland, or thrown on an emperor's body, or placed on the head of gods. Its one wish is: “मुझे तोड़ लेना, वनमाली! उस पथ पर देना तुम फेंक, मातृभूमि पर शीश चढ़ाने जिस पथ जावें वीर अनेक!” — pluck me and throw me on the path along which brave men go to offer their heads to the motherland. The flowers Ananda saw were doing exactly what the flower in the poem wished for.