For someone like me, my olfactory senses is my gut! You smell good, you will be my true friend for always, you smell unpleasant and I’ll try and first buy you cologne, if that doesn’t work, then I will find excuses to stay away! I am simple like that!
I think I developed this keen sense of associating smells with people way back when I was a precocious four year old! My grandfather from my maternal side used to be a prim and proper army gentleman! He would comb his hair down with Brylcream and dab a generous handful of Old Spice Aftershave on his clean shaven cheeks. And this smell remains with me even now after over four and a half decades. My grandfather from my paternal side was the exact opposite. He smelled of snuff and old books and Amrutanjan. In the cold cold days of Kodaikanal, I would snuggle next to his feet and cover myself with his blanket while he would recite verses from the Ramayana and tell me about how strong and powerful Hanuman is and all I could picture in my head was a Monkey god who smelled of fruits and dog fur! In my defense, the only animal I was in close proximity all my growing years were dogs! My grandmothers cat hated me because I would try and flatten her tail. A cat that adopted my home briefly, chose my mother as its designated owner so we were not allowed to pet him or hold him. When he was in a benevolent mood, he would rub himself against us and move on with his life. He never let us sniff him and so we don’t know what he smelt like! But my dogs, I knew their scents from their foreheads to their butts. And that’s how I imagined Hanuman to smell like. I think I still do think that He may have a very fur like smell about Him and we will still like being around him because He can give bearhugs to us!
As a teen, I used to be very fond of Jovan Musk! That was the heady scent of the schools crush and the best dancer in the whole world (okay okay, not the whole world, but for sure my school!). Whenever the said heartthrob would walk down the corridor, all the girls would sniff the air and silently nod to each and blush and hope we could catch his eyes sometime instead of his scent! But those were hard times and no social media to hide behind. The ones with guts would go up to the man and tell him he smelt good, the rest of us would just watch with our mouths open.
Workplace etiquette defined that we must look presentable and smelled pleasant for the sake of the others who will be working in close proximity with us. Along with this came the luxury of now being able to buy my own perfume bottles! Starting with Yardley’s English Lavender, I slowly graduated to the more exclusive Gucci and Hugo Boss and J Lo and Versace and so many others with fancier bottles and even richer notes in their spritzers.
But beyond all these packaged and bottled perfumes, I still long to smell the baby smell my babies carried on the top of their heads and curled up toes! I will give anything to go back to that time and hold that breath in a lot longer and make sure it seeps into my pores as deeply as possible! Baby soaps and shampoos on adults don’t have the same effect! It’s the milk/ baby soap/ baby cream/ and just the baby smell! A heady mix of scents that can push all pheromones at the same time! And make you love the baby more in spite of the constant pooping, peeing, spit ups, crankiness and fatigue!
I love cooking and the heady smell of hot oil, spluttering mustards, asafoetida and curry leaves tempering on a boiling pot of spicy, tangy and absolutely divine flavours of rasam, is yet another feast to my olfactory! The smell of coriander steeping in hot rasam or sambar, the sharp biting flavours of ginger garlic roasting with onions, the various masalas spluttering in the oil and releasing their flavours to the curries and biriyanis, the magic of a simple bunch of chopped mint leaves or crushed basil leaves, the citric flavour of a lime, the tantalising and raw flavours of coconut oil, sesame oil and mustard oil that completely changes the textures and flavours of the dishes they are added to. What is not to love about the smell of a hot steaming cup of coffee! The heavy, aromatic blend of a strong decoction with piping hot and frothy milk, is the elixir to life! It awakens every pore of your body and opens your mind to its endless possibilities! You are now the ruler and the emperor and conqueror of lost lands!
From the kitchen to the garden, there is a complete bouquet of fragrances that I delight in! Roses, jasmine, lillies, raat ki rani, tuberose and more! But what I am absolutely in awe is the jasmine! That too the Madurai malli! This is a tiny bud that has the strongest fragrance I have ever experienced in my life. My mother loved to put malli poo in her hair and every where she went, the fragrance would trail behind her. I have never liked it on my hair but its fragrance awakens every childhood memory of summer vacations in Chennai and Madurai and Kodaikanal. Each of these cities has a unique smell and over time you grow accustomed to them to the point you don’t notice it everyday, just on the days you land in these cities and you take a deep breath in.
Smells are every thing to me. From keeping me in a happy mood to ruining my day, I can go on and on and on about scents and smells! I am lead by my nose and if you find me standing outside an Iyengar Bakery taking deep breaths in, you know you have met me! Or if I sniff my coffee before I take my first sip, you know I am awakening from my nose up! If I am smelling the mixie jar and adding the ingredients, don’t stress. That’s my way of balancing the flavours! Some of my near ones can tell me if the salt is less just by smelling the food. I don’t go that far. But I will for sure know which of the masalas has been abundantly used and which ones were missed! Among all this how can I forget to mention petrichor?! The quintessential perfume of mother nature! After a hot and muggy day, petrichor is the first signal that there is relief and its coming in heavy and deep!
After all of this, do I have a favourite? Maybe…. Maybe not!
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