My Sniff Happy "Smelly - Smiley" Memories

September 04, 2013 16 Comments

 I am a dog! 


Yes, you heard me right! I am not talking about loyalty quotient but the reference here is purely stinky and smelly!

I am a dog and I have a strong sense of smell. Needless to say, I can smell foul early and cannot stand the bad odor. I go around sniffing good fragrance sniff-sniff. Anythiong that is good for me has to smell good. So one day when Indiblogger and Ambipur asked me to share my memories associated with different smells and fragrance at home, I couldn't help but went sniffling down the nostalgic lane and here's presenting my list of 7 smelly-smiley memories from my home-


The Family that prays together, stays together. Every morning my granny who was the head of family would get get up, bath and perform pooja (worship). Her rituals were exhaustive starting from cleaning off the previous day's flower, incense from idols to grinding Sandal on stone, picking flowers from gardens, decorating God's with new dress, flowers, Sandal Tilaks, lite incense diyas and dhoops with camphor to sing aarti (hymn) and all. The scent of desi ghee, camphor, fresh flowers, pure chandan and incense used to lace our lazy mornings with divinity, spirituality and new vigor.

The Sniff of Hawan: Doing Hawan is a sacred rituals as performed by Hindus. My granny used to follow this ritual twice a week i.e. on Tuesday & Saturday evenings. Her hawan used to be a small metal container where she would add different sacred ingredient along with wood and fire. The ingredients that she used were out of world and divine in smell. I was really fascinated by the fragrance of it so much that she would pour them more and ask to sit closely and indulge in the holy aroma. Such was the spell of it that whole of our mid porch and house would bathe in it smoky transcendence and purify itself.



Oiling the hair and body was a daily ritual at my granny's home. I was blessed to have her love in form of this daily practice. Every day, my granny post all morning activities and post breakfast would spend her time with me at front Veranda.  Off course on school days. She will oil my hair with coconut oil, make a braid and apply cream/oil over my exposed body part to shield away the winter dryness. Those memories still lingers in my mind. 




The smell of money: My grandpa had a small vault at home. Everyday after closing his trading office, he would come back home, open the vault, do the maths and keep the money inside. The same would follow every morning before leaving, he would open the vault, take out the cash for daily operation and lock it. The crunchy smell of fresh currency sometime laden with sweat of his hardworking hands had their own place in my sense of smells.The money also smelled security to the little me.



My younger uncle used to run an oil mill in the backyard of our house. They would often extract ground nut and mustard oil. The smell was distinctive and became a part of our family. The whole process of oil extraction and oil cake formation was a glory in itself and each carried a distinctive smell. The raw oil and the oil cake used to smell horrible. SO much that if you visit the il mill you cannot come back without carrying the smell of oil, grease et all in your cloths.


You go east, you west but home food is the best! Whether it is about the winter morning parathas or crispy roasted corn on cob on the rainy days or smell of daily rice-dal sauteed in ghee and asfoetida! Any aroma that came out from that kitchen was a great kindle for senses. My appetite would be limited though as I would have feed myself enough with aromas of garlic and onion being roasted in pan, tangy smell of lemon juice, sweet smell of Gulab Jamuns soaked in sugar syrup and who an forget the smell of cardamom. Ummm!


Off course who can forget the smell of rain when you want to eat the sweet smelling mud and puke at the smell rather stink of water soaked uniforms and socks. Your home smells different on those days and yes off course your budget for room fresheners increases during the monsoon season. Off course moist in the air, half dried cloths and aroma of earth when rain drops hits it has it's own distinctive spell on your senses.



Flowers are widely associated with fragrances and perfumes. Whether it is Rose, Lily or Jasmine, our garden has it all. My parents were extremely fond of gardening and were always eager to add all new varieties of plants and flowers in our garden.

I am still a dog who has a strong sense and love for sniffing the smell and fragrances
This post is written for Indiblogger Smelly to smiley contest sponsored by Ambipur
To know more about Ambipur, do visit their Facebook page

The autor is half Human, half machine. Go Figure or just revel in what I write

16 comments:

  1. Anonymous04 September

    This truly was an awesome post, a walk down memory lane using smells alone.

    All the very best for the contest...

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  2. Wow smell of rain, cooking in the kitchen and jasmine is heavenly!

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  3. Anonymous04 September

    That's quite a confession or releasing secrets. Awesome:)

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  4. Ahhh the smells made me go down the memory lane :D

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  5. Smelling my way back to the past now :)

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  6. what a wonderful post...thoroughly enjoyed reading it

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  7. Excellent. I agree with all. I would add one more of my favorite. The smell of inside of a brand new car with pure leather seats. So sexy.

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  8. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  9. how true it is that smell can take us to different places.. goo one, Ekta. :)

    A Rat's Nibble - Fragrant Memories

    Haven't you Nibbled yet?

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  10. so true .. smell can take you miles apart ! nice post :)

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  11. This posts refreshingly different from the ones I have read so far..! Yeah smell is truly an entity ;)

    ATB for the contest!

    Regards
    Sammya

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  12. a lovely beginning. I could feel myself in a prayer room with the early morning sunshine and smell the pooja ingredients!

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  13. Different and creative! Lovely post Ekta :)
    All the best dear!

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  15. I have been reading such a good of one. this post is remember in my childhoods.


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  16. Nice one sweets! Congrats for this one too :-)

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