UNIQUE WAYS TO SPREAD FRAGRANCES
LT COL NOEL ELLIS
29/VI/2022
Aggarbatti was and is the most used thing to keep a sweet fragrance in and around the house. Of course these incense sticks are used for other purposes too across all faiths and religions. Some fragrances really touch the sense of smell and some are atrocious to say the least.
In my childhood, I don’t remember the brand name but it was lit every evening in my study room to keep it smelling good for as long as it lasted. This item was ‘rationed’ to one stick a day as in those days it was beyond my pocket money. Dad used to like it, so extra money to buy a pack was easy.
To keep the drawing room smelling good, we never had an issue. There was a hedge of Mogras growing on one side of the house. In the evening dad would pick buds and thread them into a ‘gajra’ for mom every day & then for my wife.
We had a huge bush of ‘Raat ki rani’ & creepers of Juhi in every window. Dad was fond of Narcissus and Tuberoses too. Round the year there would be some sweet smelling flower in our garden.
The cooler used to push juhi fragrance into the bedroom. Besides, once the gajra was worn, it would be hung infront of the cooler. The smell in the house was mesmerising. Coolers were also thatched with a grass called ‘Khus’. The smell of petrichor used to add to the variety till wood wool replaced khus. Later, a drop of khus ‘essence’ was used to keep the water free from bad odour.
In NDA Agarbattis were a ‘life saver’. The DS could smell fags from miles but then to dissipate its smell, agarbattis worked. Before study period it became a routine to light one, not for the smelly fags but the stinky smell of OG socks. Sometimes instructors raided our cabins. A quick rub of toothpaste on the teeth, twenty deep breaths before the DS came, a dab of old spice ‘after shave’ could save your skin.
Higher the floor, more were the chances to obliterate all evidence, including hiding fags in secret compartments. Smoking in a group was risky as the smoke emanating could be classified as a Type-II fire. For such emergencies, the cheapest talc available in the canteen was dusted on the palm and a puff of air would be blown all around the room like a misty cloud. Eau-de-Cologne also used to come in handy to dispel smell of fags in the fingers.
Most of us were right handers. The DS therefore would generally smell the right hand. We were smart & smoked with our left hand. Period!
In the corporate world, there used to be those automatic ‘fragrance dispensers’. In Mumbai, especially during the rainy season there used to be all sorts of smells floating around. This whiff of fragrance used to be a saving grace.
In some corporate headquarters it used to be more of a ‘drama’. Frankincense would be lit in one corner of the reception. The smell used to hit your nostrils and find its way to your brain giving a splitting headache. The bosses used to like it. One reason I used to avoid going to his office was this because the receptionist would light up more than what was required to impress the top man.
Our neighbours requested us to water their pots as they were going out for a week. As I stood and admired how innovative these people were, to have stuck nice looking small glass bottles on the champa tree. Initially, I thought they were some types of colourful bulbs, like we have fairy lights.
On a closer look, I found out what they were and had a hearty laugh. They were used ‘car freshener’ bottles. They even used its self-adhesive to stick them to the tree trunk. Was it for the sweet smell, or was it a wrong buy? Instead of throwing them away, like a true ‘Marwari Khopdi’, every paisa has to give returns. They found this innovative method using car perfume. The flowers of a champa tree which these bottles were stuck to, as it smells nice. I could only ‘doff my hat’ to such a thought process.
When the car goes over a bump, the liquid gets displaced in the bottle to stick to the filter in the centre through which the smell is dispensed. Here they were using the natural sway of the branches to catch the motion of the car. How innovative and unique Marwari brain.
One just can’t beat a true ‘hindoostani jugaroo’ mind. Are there any more path breaking ways to spread fragrances around? I wonder!!!!!!!!
JAI HIND
© NOEL ELLIS
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