Rehan Yer Khan believes in saying it with flowers and insists that your bouquet is a phone call away. Giving freshly-plucked daisies wrapped in a newspaper sheet might have a charm of its own, but it's certainly not a flamboyant gesture that will sweep someone off their feet. And if that is what you have in mind, then Rehan Yer Khan is your man. This 25-year-old has created a Garden of Eden, Naranja, that is over-flowing with flowers as exotic and colourful as birds of paradise.Rehan runs a 24-hour, dial-a-bouquet service. You can phone or fax him any time and within hours the flowers will be delivered anywhere in India or in over 100 countries worldwide. "It is like a floral telegram," he says. And the delivery charge is gratis. Located bang in the middle of congested Lower Parel, the location seems an unlikely choice for a rose garden. But Rehan is not bothered by that. All his customers have to do, is call him up and their flowers will be delivered.Apart from the usual roses and orchids, he also has tulips, chrysanthemums, lilies, African daisies and Hawaiian halleconics. These are kept in a special cold room. This keeps his flowers fresh and ensures that his arrangements last at least five days. His bouquets start from Rs 250 and can go up to Rs 25,000. An arrangement of such a size would be as big as a Christmas tree. "A husband recently sent his wife one as a gift," he says. And you can have the flowers specially packaged with champagne or cuddly toys. But Rehan has become used to rather odd requests. For instance, one customer recently sent a wreath to Pritish Nandy. "Whatever it is, we will deliver it," says Rehan.But starting this service wasn't exactly a walk down the primrose path for Rehan. It all began seven years ago when he was a mere teenager. Rehan wanted to export some flowers to a friend in Dubai. His friend rejected his samples as the flowers were not up to international standards. So, Rehan went to the source - Holland, and bought better quality seeds. At this time the Indian government opened up floriculture, so seeds could be easily imported. After tying up with two Dutch companies, Rehan became involved in turn-key projects where he set up greenhouses for other people.About 18 months ago, Rehan went a step further and decided to retail flowers too. Again, Rehan looked for foreign tie-ups and today is Interflora's sole agent in India. He also has a tie-up with America's AFS. This is the US company behind the highly popular service 1-800-FLOWERS, the 24-hour dial-a bouquet service. His store, Naranja, now boasts of some of Mumbai's most glamourous people as its clients. He provided flowers for the opening of Beautiful Boulevard and Legend of Ram - Prince of India. He also operates the Max touch flower service and ABCL is one his regular customers. "Amitabh Bachchan was so impressed that he personally wrote us a note," says Rehan. About 700 people and companies hold regular accounts with Naranja. He also takes great pains with detail. His highly-skilled workers come from Midnapor, a town near Calcutta which used to specialise in wedding preparations for the Indian royalty of India. "We have a pleasing style and there is nothing stiff about our flowers," says Rehan.He plans to concentrate on his retailing business as he believes that there is a gap in the market for high quality florists. Come September, he will start a major advertising campaign. By this time he would have also broken even. As this service requires a lot of manpower, it is naturally fairly expensive. So far, his business has grown mainly by word of mouth.Rehan loves giving and receiving flowers. But finds to his dismay that others do not appreciate it when he sends a bouquet. "They say, `Big deal, you are just bringing home something from work'." So, while Rehan encourages others to say it with flowers, doing it for himself unfortunately is out of the question.
