Have you ever at any point in time come across a wonderful aroma as you are walking down a street or a pleasant fragrance from someone’s home or a heady scent when someone passes you by? There have been some unmistakable smells from everyday life that have made me close my eyes, breathe in deeply and take in the aroma, fragrance or whatever pleasant smell that is being emanated. Enlisted below are a few of them which I simply love.
I remember as a child walking down the street somewhere in T Nagar in the city of Chennai and there would be small shops along the lane – grinding mills, grocery stores, tailor shops, small pharmacies etc. One of the little joints was a coffee grinding mill and from which a rich, warm hedonistic aroma wafts out and appeases my olfactory senses. It’s a similar experience even when I pass by a Starbucks or any other coffee house. The warm, enriching aroma beckons you and is simply irresistible – almost comforting…
Another strong aroma I will always remember is the evening nearly 12 years back as I was returning home from my Math tuition quickly walking down a by lane in a Brahmin populated locality of Chennai – R A Puram. I still recall the aroma of potatoes being roasted, tempered with mustard seeds, coated with turmeric and salt as they turned golden brown and became crisp over the low flame of fire. That coupled with the aroma simmering garlic rasam, until the aroma danced out into the streets and made the stomachs of passersby like me rumble.
Being a book-lover and an avid reader of Indian writing in English I have frequented the aisles of many a bookshop – Landmark, Higginbotham’s, Odyssey, Borders, Kinokuniya et al. There is something so exciting and solacing in picking up a brand new book and turning its pages and just feeling the surface of the printed paper. Sometimes the sharp edge of a page slices through the soft pink skin of your forefinger and sometimes the glossy pages squeak when you turn each page. But have you ever lifted the book to your nose and smelt the freshly printed paper? At the risk of looking silly I have many times just taken a book and smelt its newness and placed it back on the shelf, satisfied by the experience.
We all love babies don’t we? That small ball, gurgling and chortling, delicate and soft. I’m not sure how to describe the ‘baby smell’ that emanates from their tiny bodies. But it’s a smell you can’t get enough of. A gratifying sweet smell that makes you smile. A combination of powder, oil, soap, milk, spittle and poop which is oddly endearing.
I love watching my washed clothes flapping in the sun as they dry on the clothes pole. I strangely enjoy bundling the freshly washed laundry, still warm from the hot golden rays of the sun. Not only that but I also love the smell of these freshly washed clothes. As I lift my white cotton tee I draw it up to my nose and deeply breathe in the smell of detergent that has cleansed it.
And then there is the smell of rain. It’s an earthy overpowering smell just before a downpour on a dry, hot, scorching day and the smell soon after the first spell when the ground gets wet and the hot air evaporates. It always makes me rejoice and sets me in a pleasant mood for those few moments.
While we are on the subject of aroma how can I not mention the bakery? The smell of freshly baked bread, buns, brownies, croissants and puffs still warm from the oven, tickles the taste buds and draws one to the delicious treats. Whether it is ‘Raghavendra Iyer Bakery’, ‘McRennetts’, ‘Hot Breads’, ‘Bread Talk’, ‘Delifrance’ or ‘Prima Deli’ the bakery aroma is one of the best.
If you’ve walked into ‘Aesthetics’ a store on RK Salai in Chennai that sells wares from Pondicherry or the posh high end ‘Naturally Auroville’ boutique on snobbish Khader Nawaz Khan Road then you would be familiar with the fragrance I’m talking about. A mix of smells that is given forth from handmade paper, leather bags and essential oils. If you want to know what that smells like you’ll simply have to visit the stores. It is a faintly perceptible mixture of fragrances that hits you as soon as you enter the stores.
Last but not the least is the fragrances that entice from the jasmine, sandalwood and rose scented incense sticks giving out swirling wisps of smoke as their tips burn slowly. I may be passing by a small shop in the street or an auto parked at the corner early morning or even my mom’s pooja room but it has always had a calming, soothing and tranquil effect.
To sum up my olfactory experience – For the sense of smell, almost more than any other, has the power to recall memories and it is a pity that we use it so little. – Rachel Carson
