A Fragrant Blog

As a teen, I liked collecting perfume and attar bottles. Dad loved perfumes and he had a small collection, nothing fancy but I remember some of the bottles were of lovely shapes – one like Cinderella’s pumpkin carriage, an angel, another in the shape of a leaf and so on. Apart from perfumes, some scents continue to remain important for me.

Grandpa’s wardrobe had his clothes neatly on hangers and the aroma of betelnuts, cashews and rock-sugar clinging onto the space inside. I knew that in the same closet, somewhere inside was a tin of the delicious Cadbury Eclairs and peppermints that Grandma gave us. Great-Aunt’s hubby who resided on the second floor of the same house, always kept snuff, scented betelnuts and Pan Parag. Behind the wardrobe that contained these, hung a fat, furry tail that he said was a real tail of some animal (probably a mongoose?)! I would always touch the tail hesitantly, thinking of the poor dead animal, while snooping for the scented betelnuts.

Then there was my music teacher’s house which always smelled of coconut, betelnut and sugar. Perhaps because it is a custom to give the coconut at the beginning of a function and we had many musical functions at her place. Afterwards, she’d distribute the fresh coconut chunks amongst her students. I loved having the coconut with rock sugar and betelnut pieces.

Once when I had a dandruff problem, an elder had put oil infused with eucalyptus on my hair. I loved the fresh perfume of Nilgiri and I started using it on my handkerchief so often that some of my family members started scolding me for overdoing it. I loved the white cubes of camphor, kept in the puja room and would crush the cubes and rub in the perfume on my hair or even taking a bite out of a cube to see what it tastes like! It usually had a head-clearing effect.

I have never been fascinated by the ‘chic’ perfumes – feel that they contain too much alcohol or expire too soon. I had received one of the Estee Lauder collections and an Elizabeth Arden green tea perfume as gifts and found the former too strong in an unpleasant sort of manner. The green-tea perfume was good though. I think these perfumes only smell great when they are inside paper folds of magazines, which entices people to buy them and discover they are not so good after all!

Some months back, I had gone for a Marathi musical play. Some people arrived late after the play had begun and got into the row in front of ours. As one of the ladies in that group took a seat, I got a whiff of a once-familiar perfume from my childhood – Khus (vetiver). Instead of focusing on the play, I sat there thinking about events from days bygone. The next day, I went to the old market in the heart of the city and got a bottle of khus attar. Then, the following week was spent in exploring other attars. There was henna, kewra (screwpine), sandalwood, rose, mogra, jasmine and raatrani. I ended up getting all, although I found the jasmine perfume too heady and strong. My sack of attars met a sad end when they were usurped from my handbag by the airline security (I happened to be traveling just after the Heathrow scam). Must have made someone’s dear ones happy, receiving those attars for free!

We get essential oils at local health stores here and I like using the rosemary essence. Ylang-ylang has the perfume of a popular flower we see in parts of India – bakul. I like the colour of dried lavender and had been using the essence until I read somewhere that it contains phytoestrogens that could interfere with the hormone functions. Gardenia has a divine perfume (the flower, I mean – not the essence which reeks of an artificial smell). I’d gladly wear a fresh gardenia on my jacket everyday!

Shikakai was and still is a hot favourite and every household has their own recipe to make this shampoo. A special medical shikakai we buy is a conglomeration of all favourite powders – khus, camphor, shikakai, sandalwood, henna, rose, soapnut, etc. As the hair dries naturally in the bright sunlight, after a shikakai wash, the delicate aroma is hard to miss.

When our dog nuzzles close to me, I like to hug her to breathe in the faint perfume on her head – she almost smells like a baby but like babies, unfortunately catches on any stronger scent like that of cooking oil or incense sticks. Luckily, the bad smells do not stay for long on her and I guess she too likes delicate perfumes because she loves to stretch out (with me) in front of the cooler misting khus perfume – an alternative for the vetiver curtains.

Crisp books, pine cones, wet meadows (not lawn turfs), rain on parched earth, the seashore with all of the treasures from below the sea, the aquamarine ocean waters, a dear one’s embrace….smell beautiful! I had gone for a lilac festival once and really liked the perfume. After that visit, I started looking out for lilac, geranium and marjoram essences at stores. The Indian name for the sweet marjoram plant is ‘marwa’ and it is sold as a houseplant. Although these perfumes are great as essential oils, they are horrible in readymade products like commercial shampoos, room sprays or soaps. The key is to use the essences separately – good riddance to these harsh products!

The list in food items is endless, but especially love the aroma of sabudana khichadi, anything aloo (Aloo methi) and any steamed foods (idlis, dhoklas) cooking. The aroma list is not complete without saffron and cardamom of course. I love those ‘homemade’ soaps with their gorgeous colours, that are sold in health stores – they look good enough to eat but are too expensive and can induce a feeling of guilt, if bought. I used to like the perfume of Aramusk soap but after finding out how it is obtained, gave up on it.

This blog focuses on the aromas but some smells I detest are that of mustard tadka in oil, a variation of the champa flower (kavthi-chafa), jackfruits (can only imagine how durians reek), ripening fruit, those berry-scented artificial sprays, metallic surfaces and strong alkaline soap.

Aromatherapy is good when practiced occasionally. It also gives a feeling of freshness and cleanliness and is better than using the artificial sprays which contain a lot of bad chemicals. Over-indulgence can have bad effects but I haven’t spent too much time on this hobby to tire of it, so I still I do enjoy it. It is worth a try.

~ by goldendog on August 15, 2007.