I Smell Love, I Smell Memories!

“Sometimes a scent is more evocative than a photo or an image. It is a primer for the deflagration of sensation, emotions, desires, uncontrollable atmospheres, dejavus that flood and wrap us like honey, until they make us drown in an unrepeatable moment of wellbeing... olfactory hallucinations that lead us anywhere: to the North of any South, to the East of any West...”― Profumum Roma

Smiles are directly proportional to smells, and I believe in that. The good you smell, the more smiles you get. But, for me, I have another prospect for smells. Smells or odours do the same what the labels on beakers in a chemistry lab do. They help us to identify things and discriminate between the chemicals (in life, the people around us). In my early childhood, I used to remember things by smell (I think still I do it).

I don’t remember names, figures or faces, but I certainly can recall something I smelt long before. The first smell residing in my memories is the smell of my grandmother. She had died one year ago, but still I can feel her presence whenever I try to remind of that fresh smell she always used to bring with her. She had a habit of bathing early in the morning, I don’t know what she used after that, but I never found that kind of fragrance in any soap or deodorant. She used to smell like a temple! Divine and surreal.

I have a lot of memories attached with the smell that I have carefully nourished in my mind till today is the smell of my classrooms, from the lower grades to the upper. I still miss smelling science labs, I loved the chemical smells. Talking about Aromemories (I coined the word just now!)I must not forget to talk about the little girl who was just started going to school. Yes, it’s me at the earlier school days. Mondays were the best days in the week for me. I hated weekends, because I couldn’t go to school to meet my friends. I cherished the Monday-smell in the softest part of my core. The smell of freshly pressed school-uniform, my bag, home-made lunch and my mother’s kiss.

My father is another part of my Aromemory. He was a chain smoker (now is in a restriction) when I was small. I easily distinguished him with the smell of nicotine. The grips of the pens he used to write with, acquired the smell because his fingertips were always fragrant with cigarette-smell. For a very long time I could relate the smokish (another coinage!) smell to my father, and I think I still can.

“For the sense of smell, almost more than any other, has the power to recall memories and it is a pity that we use it so little.” 

– Rachel Carson

I believe I have only one strongest sense organ, my nose! I think it is more improved than my dog’s. I myself have designated some smells, sweet smells, bitter smells, sour smells, sharp smell, soft smell, motherly smell, fatherly smell, grandmotherly smell, holiday smell, saddening smell, happy smell and lots other.

Smell is something that you can rely on when it comes of identify something. It gives you the honest reminder of something you forget. This is the most important sense you have. We all know that a rose is a rose by any name, but a rose should always be fragrant like a rose, nothing but a rose. That is the most important attribute of a rose!

Here I recall a famous quote of Jeffrey Stepakoff, he says- “A good fragrance is really a powerful cocktail of memories and emotion” (The Orchard). And, this is the line I solely believe in. A smell can speak a thousand words. It can evoke the bygone and enliven the silent moments that we nourish in our psyches. My nostalgia gets rejuvenated when the scent of first rain or of a specific incense stick (agarbatti) or of some freshly made coconut laddoo hits my nose. I feel memories are to be cherished and aromas are to be felt. Smiles are directly proportional to good memories and good memories are the scents of nostalgia.

This entry is written for IndiBlogger ‘Smelly to Smiley!’ contest by Ambipur.