Institute Of Flower Arts (Ngo)

Our place is in the basement at 61, Lane Number 2, Gopal Bari. It can be a little bit tricky to find if you aren't looking closely for the small sign near the stairs. We operate as an NGO and mostly focus on the craft of flower arts. It’s not a corporate office or anything, just a basement where we keep a lot of vases, buckets of water, and plenty of flowers. The air down here usually smells like wet stems and roses, which is nice. We have these long wooden tables where people sit down and try to learn how to arrange things properly. It gets messy quite fast. There are always leaves and bits of wire on the floor by noon. We don't have a big staff, just a few of us who know our way around a bouquet. We spend our mornings getting the fresh flowers ready and the afternoons are usually for the classes. It stays cool down here even when it is boiling hot outside in Gopal Bari. People find out about us mostly by talking to their friends. We don’t do any big advertising. It’s a quiet spot for people to come and use their hands for a few hours. Sometimes we run out of supplies and have to scramble to the market, but we usually manage. It’s just a simple group of people who like working with nature and sharing what we know with anyone who drops by the basement.