Bedtime was special while growing up. My brother and I looked forward to the tales my folks told us before “lights out”. Growing up at a time when there were distinctly girl stories and boy stories, my mother made sure my brother and I got our fair share of gender-specific stories. My brother’s favourite was “Jack and the Bean Stalk” and he used to wait for the giant to roar “Fee ! Fie! Fo ! Fum ! I smell the breath of an Englishman.” His anticipation was palpable as Jack clambered down as fast as he could and chopped down the beanstalk in the nick of time!

Guessing games

Indeed, smells are dead giveaways and like the Giant,  I could tell a mile away what was cooking in whose house. Walking home from the bus stop, I could smell the rich aroma of mutton curry or chole from the Khanna’s home, or the warm smell of Vanilla from Aunty Patsy’s house.

I could also figure out who was the last person to have used the lift and my favourite game was to identify the perfume. Was it Dina with her signature perfume of ‘Miss Dior’ or was it Nalin with ‘Eau Sauvage’? In fact, so sensitive was my nose that even clean water had a strange, clean smell – almost metallic!

Some smells would drive me crazy – like the smell of fish that came in with low tide, the smell of diesel fumes from the neighbouring bus depot or the smell of stale urine in a public toilet. 

But strangely enough, after my babies were born, my sense of smell diminished and now only really strong smells affect my olfactory receptors. Perhaps this was nature’s way of protecting me from the natural odours of pee and poo that I had to deal with while washing baby bottoms and I used this opportunity to upgrade my personal perfume preferences from the mildly fragrant lavender, lily and rose to the stronger and more robust musk and oriental jasmines. 

heady smells

Luckily (or unluckily as the case may be), this deadening of odour receptor nerve cells hasn’t completely killed all sense of smell and some smells leave me on a positive high –

the aroma of rice cooking  – Basmati or Ambemohar that wafts through the house just before meal times,

the sharp smell of  toast burning or chapati as it  browns on the gas,

the clean smell of Lyzol  as the floors are swabbed

the gentle smell of baby while my grandson is bathing,

the citrusy smell of aftershave that my husband loves to splash on, after he leaves the bathroom scented with Mysore Sandalwood soap,

the scent of lit incense sticks mingling with the oil wick lamp comes from the pooja room,

the smell of freshly ironed clothes that are piled up on my bed.

And who can resist the smell of fresh flowers, the heady aroma of tuberoses, the faint fragrance of oriental lilies, the soft warmth of roses and the coolness of the Queen of the Night?

What smells do you like?

Ciao,