Team Malhotra rocks rose fest

CHANDIGARH: Here's a family with somereal flower power. Continuing their winning streak at the Rose Festival, theMalhotras from Sector 16 bagged prizes in 10 out of the 15 categories in theflower- arrangement competitions held at Rose Garden on Friday. The winners, Simmi, Aastha, Ankit and Gauri Malhotra, had participated in 13 different categories. For 43-year-old Simmi Malhotra, who entered her name in four competitions in the open category, winning this year was continuation of her wins in the same categories over the last five years. "I started competing in the festival in 2006 and have been winning since then. This time I got second prize in the rose category and first prize for flowers other than rose," she said.Simmi's 12-year-old daughter Aastha and 13-year-old son Ankithave been taking part in the competition since the last three years andhave together won the maximum number of trophies for the family thisyear."I got into flower arrangement three years back when I saw what my mother would do. I found it very fascination and started competing from 2008. I started winning and this encouraged me to continue. This year we entered all the four competitions in the schoolchildren category and bagged first prizes in all of them and second prize in the dry, rose and ‘flowers other than rose' categories. It feels great to be able to win in something that we love doing," said Aastha, who is student of Sacred Heart School, Sector 26.Gauri Malhotra, who participated in the "flowers-other-than-rose'arrangement competition, bagged one of the six first prizes the familyreceived."This is the first time that I participated in the flowerarrangement competition and it certainly feels great to have won. I am lookingforward to taking part in this competition again," said 18-year-old Gauri.