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Most of us rely on our sense of sight, to such an extent that we’ve taken the sense of smell for granted. People wonder – “How difficult it might have been, to live blind, deaf or dumb?” As though our sense of smell would forever be intact. Allow me to remind you that “the sense of smell gradually diminishes roughly on yearly basis starting from childhood” and unlike the sense of vision or sound which can be restored using hearing aids, glasses etc. There is nothing that could possibly be done to restore it for it is the smell receptors in the brain that gradually diminish in quantity and quality as we age.
Most of us rely on our sense of sight, to such an extent that we’ve taken the sense of smell for granted. People wonder – “How difficult it might have been, to live blind, deaf or dumb?” As though our sense of smell would forever be intact. Allow me to remind you that “the sense of smell gradually diminishes roughly on yearly basis starting from childhood” and unlike the sense of vision or sound which can be restored using hearing aids, glasses etc. There is nothing that could possibly be done to restore it for it is the smell receptors in the brain that gradually diminish in quantity and quality as we age.
The sense of smell helps
children to spot food, arouses lust in adults and is equally capable to shut it.
Not to mention the fact that sometimes it’s the deference in the smell that
seems to alter the ‘flavor’ (crazy but true). For some animals, the sense of
smell is equivalent to how we value the sense of vision.
As a helpless newborn, I relied on this very sense to
identify my mother (an amusing fact that I read from ‘1000 Fantastic Facts’
book way back in my upper primary years.) it’s a fact that triggers in me a ‘empty
nostalgia’ for I don’t have neither have any memory of the time. God, I wish if
we had the technology to capture smell (like in the movie ‘Perfume’)
videos/photographs would’ve been more realistic.
I remember once while my mother was wiping my hair dry, she
sniffed my head and said with pride: “you have the smell of your father.” I
don’t know how she did it but if she could then I guess I could too. And yes, I
did too and what I got is what I used to get as a toddler I guess.
To truly realize the nostalgic essence within smell, you’ve
got to lose it without your acknowledgment and a moment comes when all of a
sudden they hit back at you. In my case it was that special moment when I got
home from a house away from home after quite some time. The moment when I truly
realized the value and joy within many little things that I’d taken for
granted. Unlike vision, smell blends into us in time into a unified entity that
might at first appear to be nothing as one ‘gets used to’ them.
Here are some of those invisible ‘memory-chest' openers in
my home.
1.
The smell of cow dung (from a fair distance) –
Onam, the most extravagant days in Kerala. To please the kind hearted, loving
demon king who ruled Kerala, Maveli. It was believed that Onam is the time when
he would be granted permission to visit the land he ruled from his luxurious
exile in the underground. All houses would lay out flower mats to welcome him
and there was a good old time when cow dung was used as the base to lay the
flower mat. Mainly because of its antiseptic properties (its methane) the
festive-holiday mood would come tagged along with this smell. I used have a
digit age back then. All that’s changed, thanks to globalization my family had
to live apart. After 15 years, we’ve come back. Very few families now use cow
dung. They seem to have lost the spirit in a busy world. All celebrations seem
to happen in TV and malls but guess what? It’s the NRI’s who mostly celebrate
it with full spirit despite of being in a different place, for they seem to
know what the value of togetherness and tradition is. They miss it. The cow
dung triggers in me faint memories if unselfish childhood joys.
2.
The smell of old clothes – when clothes are
washed, dried and preserved in a suitcase (the metal trunk of 90’s
) they possess a unique smell when taken out after a real long time (say around 2 years in my case) there used to be a time when I was in digit age and my father alone worked abroad, leaving me and mom behind. When he came back after 2 years, mom had preserved his cloths on that old trunk. I remember that beautiful smell. It was brief, stayed only for the first night of my father’s arrival. In the bed as I hugged him I use to sniff the old shirt he wore often. Then next day onwards, branded perfumes of Arabia replaced that smell and I barely even noticed its disappearance. I and mother would soon leave with him to Gulf. After another two years, when we returned back to our homeland my aunt had done with my clothes I left behind what mom had done with dads when he left us. “Try this mone (beta), it might have become tight though” she said as she took out my dress from a similar trunk and it hit me, the smell…the old night of excitement with my dad. Wow, it was a unique experience.
) they possess a unique smell when taken out after a real long time (say around 2 years in my case) there used to be a time when I was in digit age and my father alone worked abroad, leaving me and mom behind. When he came back after 2 years, mom had preserved his cloths on that old trunk. I remember that beautiful smell. It was brief, stayed only for the first night of my father’s arrival. In the bed as I hugged him I use to sniff the old shirt he wore often. Then next day onwards, branded perfumes of Arabia replaced that smell and I barely even noticed its disappearance. I and mother would soon leave with him to Gulf. After another two years, when we returned back to our homeland my aunt had done with my clothes I left behind what mom had done with dads when he left us. “Try this mone (beta), it might have become tight though” she said as she took out my dress from a similar trunk and it hit me, the smell…the old night of excitement with my dad. Wow, it was a unique experience.
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When I was in class 6 we were expecting a
baby. The early points of gestation. The good news had been confirmed and
happily messaged out to folks back home.
“Now that mommy is going to deliver a baby
we’ve got to give hand at cleaning and maintenance.” Said my dad, and that was
one of the times I had hands on training of using Dettol with my dad(which
proved to be useful whenever I wiped my hostel room floor, besides those
memories just flashback.) As we cleaned
me n dad talked about naming the new born, whether it would be a male or
female? “What if it were twins?” etc. . . .
Well, none of that happened… an unexpected
death of fetus. L
4.
The smell of cuticura – my grandpa is one weird
dude when it comes to some silly thing like usage of soap and powder. For as
long as I can remember, the only (the one and only) brand of powder he uses is
cuticura and for soap, pears. Even now, believe it or not. He is now on the
later stage of 80, healthy though. Back when I was a kid cuticura came in long cylindrical
containers. He’d never throw them away but used them as his piggy bank
(strictly coins). His room always smells of cuticura. At the bottom of his
cupboard there were (and still do) around old cuticura cans filled with coins
up to the brink.
Back then when I used to ask him what he’d planned
to do with all those coins he’d say – “I have 3 more daughters to marry off
apart from your mother”
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I came across this beautiful book- “Men are
from Mars and Women are from Venus”. On one such horrific moments I even took
an oath to be the most loving husband ever – God knows how things might turn out
to be in my case when I get married. I know that will be the time when I truly
understand my parent’s weirdo personality fluctuations. Whenever my parents
argue, I kind of feel like something is being overcooked and I check for the
same and vice versaJ.
My parents been married 21 long years and I guess that arguments combine with
patients did seem to play an integral role of gluing their love .Now that I am
living away, years together have started feeling nostalgic.
I guess the only way I can hopefully
possibly overcome this is to somehow be awaken by burnt food from deep
love-making with my ever loving wife(whom I have yet not met)…he he just
kidding!!!
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Whenever she came back from work she’d have
this peculiar smell of spices dust that would make me sneeze as I hugged her. I am now as old as she was back then and I
truly realize her boldness. It’s something even beyond what I possess. Perhaps
hardened by the disability that couldn’t win over her will power. The pocket
money(coins) which she’d give me had that smell too.
The smell of spices in store room of my
house always reminded me of her (and still do), especially when we lived
abroad. She quit that job years back and now receives government pension (the
only child among my grandmother’s children to serve in government sector).
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Upon writing this post I realize, from an aromatic
viewpoint, the influence of the two homes that I spent most of my life so far
in. They may be countries apart but is united by memories triggered by smell
(along with moments, incidents, future plans etc.)
Then there are air freshers in the market to steal it all away...: )
That's a lot of smell you could recall upon! Its true,though I did feel most of them but never noticed it to this extent. But one thing is the smell of some special dishes.It would just recall all those sweet memories of the childhood. :-)
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