Last week I landed up in Kolkata
for some medical emergency in the family. If you visit a city like Kolkata,
there are some smells you just can’t avoid. Smell of a drain full of rotten
garbage, smell of fish cooking in mustard oil, smell of old houses and many
more smells of the old city. It was on my way back to the airport, three days later that I started thinking about
the defining smells of places I have been to . I am no olfactory expert nor do
I have any particular interest in odours and scents but unconsciously each one of us catches some
smells and link it to places, people and
memories. To cite another example of my theory on smell of a city – when I first visited Mumbai I stayed in a
place at Navynagar, which is close to a dry fish factory. The smell in the air
got so etched in my memory that even now I associate Mumbai sea with that
smell. Believe it or not, all of us have our personal list of good and bad
smells . Smell of freshly baked cake when you enter a bakery, smell of
expensive perfumes in luxury hotels, smell of food in your favourite eatery and
most important smell of your home are just some of the familiar ones. Then there are some peculiar smells viz smell
of typical government offices( a curious mix of old papers, sweat and stinky toilets), smell of railway platform/trains, smell of old monuments and smell of hospitals.
Some years back, quite accidentally,
I happen to watch a movie called
‘Perfume’. Later I read the German book titled ‘Perfume: The Story of a
Murderer’ (originally published in German as Das Parfum) by Patrick Süskindon
which the movie was based. The novel explores the sense of smell and its
relationship with the emotional meaning that scents may carry. Set in 18th
century France, the book tells the story of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille (Whishaw),
a perfume apprentice in 18th-century France who, born with no body scent
himself, begins to stalk and murder virgins in search of the "perfect
scent". Interestingly the book talks about scent of a person, smell of a
place and even scent of humanity (from which at some stage in the book
Grenouille wants to run away). I was very moved by the book. The main plot
apart, the concept of smells as an essential characteristic of a person
fascinated me. I am still not sure that there can be a “perfect smell” so
powerful that it can control everything and everyone ......but I do believe
that smell of a place has a long-lasting memory.
The
latest research also confirms that smell have a remarkable persistence in our
memories. Although people are more likely to recall exposure to a visual image
than an odour when re-exposed after a short period of time, once in our
memories, odours are effectively in there to stay, and are more likely than
visual images to be recalled after a year. Indeed it is this factor, which is
contributing towards an interest in the role that smell has to play with
illnesses such as dementia and Alzheimer’s in aiding access to long-stored
memories. The funny part is that our mind is not objective when it links places
and smells. Usually it associates emotions and circumstances with it
So however fresh smelling be a
modern hospital, my mind will still associate it with disease, pain and fear of
losing a loved one. Your mother’s kitchen may smell of damp walls and pungent
spices, it is likely that you’d read (rather sniff ) it as memories of
favourite comfort food of your childhood. To my mind freshly cut grass smell
from a lawn is inevitably linked with parks and gardens, summer, picnics and
childhood and I still can’t resist sniffing a new book for the lovely smell of
paper and ink . In fact , Books/ papers have very distinctive smells and are
strongly influenced by age. Newer books smell of fresh print and paper while older
books provide a rich, vanilla and tobacco like odour that can be associated
with old wooden libraries, leather chairs and well...warmth.
It is believed that
some smells are so familiar that one can dream of them.
It is not only places and things
, smells can even remind you of specific
people. It may sound silly but whenever
I think of my father, it is the fresh smell of detergent from his clothes that
comes to my mind. Yet another smell I associate with him is the smell of havan –
a mix of burning of wood, camphor and Havan samagri .
Coming back to the issue of
smells of the city, when I think of Shimla, I think of sweet smell of pinewood floors and pristine hill air and when I dream of Lucknow, I remember
smells originating from my parents’ house. The scented shrubs and creepers of
Juhi , bela, Malti and chameli gave the house a heady and yet heavenly
fragrance of its own. Rome for me had a peculiar smell of Churches – difficult to
define and describe, but it is something I could feel both times I happen to be
in that eternal city. Talk of Varanasi,
our very own eternal city, reminds me of
typical smell at the River ghats.
It is
again difficult to describe the smell of Delhi, but for me it is predominately
the smell of power. Mumbai unfortunately till now reminds me of the dead fish
smell and I sincerely hope that in days
to come, I will find some other, better smell to remember this city with .
I read a couple of weeks back in
an article that in cities like London and New York, we have advocates against
deodorisation of the urban smells. For a resident of a third world country, I
find the idea appalling. I can’t imagine such a thing happening in our cities
smelling of garbage and rot. I would in fact welcome some bit of
“deodorisation” of places around me. Usually it is a pungent smell of spices and
waste that dominates the air of our crowded cities and some amount of
artificial deodorisation e..g. in malls
and restaurants , airports and showrooms , in fact has a smoothing effect.
Well let me end by stating that I
am not the first or the last person to link things, emotions and places with
smells. Lyricists and writers have been doing it all the time . Remember the
immortal lyrics of Gulzar : “ हमने देखी है उन आँखों की महकती ख़ुश्बू ” or
Hasrat Jaipuri writing for Amrapalli “ जब फूल कोई मुस्काता है प्रीतम की सुगंध आ जाती है” . I also remember reading in some novel recently that the “city smelled
like sin” and that " he could smell war from his body for rest of his life" . Decide for yourself is it your nose or the mind that makes these associations
and give a unique fragrance to your memories- good , bad or ugly.
