The smell of....

Shakespeare famously quoted…..A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. Yes, it does not matter what we would call a rose….because it is the smell that makes it so beautiful.

Smell…it is amazing how smells can trigger memories…take you back in time.

I love the smell of the ground when it first rains after a hot summer…….it takes me back to my childhood, to the first rains in Mumbai, to the roasted corn my Mom would bring for us, eating the corn, watching the rainfall, smelling the heavenly smell of the ground and if lucky, seeing a rainbow in the sky.

I love the smell of mint leaves…..I associate it with the pudina (mint) chutney used for panipuris. It takes me back to my teens when I would go for long walks with my best friend just to eat the panipuris from the roadside vendor…..chatting nonstop till we got there and chatting nonstop again till we got home. My mother used to tell me…you girls meet everyday….yet you always have something to talk about. Yes, some friendships are like that….you never run out of conversation.

I love the smell of ripe jackfruit…..I am not particularly fond of the taste of jackfruit as such….but it has a wonderful aroma and it takes me back to my childhood Vishu kanis. Vishu is a New Year festival celebrated in Kerala and the Vishu kani is the first sight of the New Year. It is an arrangement of auspicious articles like God’s idol or photos, rice, lemon, mirror, yellow flowers, lamp, fruits, coins, etc. And my parents always kept the jackfruit in the Vishu kani. So every Vishu, as my father woke me up, as I walked with closed eyes towards the kani….the first smell that would hit me was the smell of the jackfruit. Today, when I keep a Vishu kani here in my home in the US, I always buy a can of jackfruit….we don’t get fresh jackfruit here. It may not be fresh but it still smells heavenly……and when I place it alongside the other items…to me, my Vishu kani is complete.

I love the smell of Nescafe…..no other coffee…just Nescafe….it takes me back to the time when I used to work for a bank in India before my marriage. We used to have a coffee break around 3 pm and the canteen boy would go around giving the coffee. And as I sipped on my Nescafe (it has such a wonderful smell)…I would chat with my co worker sitting next to me….she and I were very different from each other and yet, we connected at many levels to become close friends. We would share our lives happenings with each other. For some reason, she called me ‘Baalike’…a name by which only she calls me in this world. To my friend…I miss those days and I hold those moments shared with you close to my heart.

I love the smell of fish fry….my mother is a vegetarian…..so I learnt to cook fish from my uncle who unexpectedly passed away a few years back. He was like an elder brother to me and so every time I fry fish…it takes me back to my memories with him.

I love the smell of mehendi (henna)….it takes me back to the day before my wedding when I had mehendi applied on my hands…..symbolizing my transition from a young girl to a woman…from a daughter to a wife. That day, my mom fed me with her hands and today, being a mother to a daughter myself…I understand the emotions on her face as she was feeding me…..the sadness of a mother whose child was going far away from her….that memory which only strengthened the bond between my mother and me is priceless.

I love the smell of jasmine flowers….it reminds me of all the summer vacations spent in Kerala in my childhood…especially the temple visits in the evenings, dressed in traditional Kerala clothes with a string of jasmine in my hair.

I love the smell of Johnson’s baby powder…..it takes me back to the time when both my children were babies….I remember hugging my cuddly babies and taking in the smell of the baby powder that I would have put on them after giving them a bath.

I love the smell of a new book…..it takes me back to my childhood when my father would buy me all the possible comics to read….Phantom, Mandrake, Tinkle, Amar Chitra Katha, Bahadur…..an endless list.

I love the smell of chicken biryani…..Now this recipe I got from a dear friend whom again destiny made me meet. She is related to another friend and lives in the place where we moved to last year. And so when I was planning my move, she was my guide….who would patiently respond to the many questions I had about the place. She cooked this biryani for us the first time we had dinner at her place. And was happy when I asked her for the recipe as it was her parents’ recipe and she had many childhood memories associated with it. The biryani uses a lot of coriander leaves and so it fills my home with a wonderful smell. As soon as it starts to cook….my daughter will come running and ask…Are you making biryani today?...and be very happy when I say Yes. Then my son will walk home from school and happily ask….Biryani for dinner today Mamma? And when my husband walks in from work…he will ask…Aaj biryani hai? (Biryani today?)…. Yes, it has become a favorite with the 3 people in my home. To my friend….thank you for the recipe….it is helping me make some memories of my own.

I love the smell of fresh laundry…..I always complain to my Mom….My laundry basket is like the Akshayapatram…..a magical vessel of food in Hindu mythology…with an uninterrupted supply of food…no matter how much food is taken from it….it keeps filling up. My laundry basket feels like that….no matter how many times I do the laundry….I feel that the basket keeps filling up. Sigh! But in the end…the fresh clean smell of the laundry makes the effort well worth it.

Signing off to go open the windows and take in the smell of fresh air and this quote by Helen Keller

‘Smell is a potent wizard that transports you across thousands of miles and all the years you have lived.’