Purple Sunbird and Dhaira Flower. Photo: Ihtisham Kabir ome weeks ago I was in the Mirpur Botanical Garden. As I walked underneath a tall Asoka tree blooming with its red and yellow flowers, I ...

It’s amazing what a flower will tell you about a society, if you let it. In Sri Lanka, I wanted to follow the lotus out of the murk, where it was cultivated by men like Asoka, into shop stalls ...