Ichangunarayan steals the limelight every Tihar, but floriculture is an everyday affair here

As soon as she migrated to Ichangunarayan on the western outskirts of Kathmandu after her wedding in 1996, Geet Lama, a native of a hilly village near Charikot of Dolakha, was worried about the future of her new family. Her concern was apparent; in the traditional arranged marriage system, it was impossible for the new bride to know about how the family would earn a living.

But, her worry soon faded away. “I was amazed to see that my in-laws were making money by selling flowers.” Before this, Lama did not have any idea that people could live on selling flowers. “I only knew about vegetable and crop farming and animal husbandry.”