My Olfactory Adventures

This post goes to my assiduous Nose. Least recognised but an awesome organ. It may represent the world of opportunities for body language readers but I am just mesmerized by its sheer power of translating simple chemical signals into feelings of pleasure and displeasure. It can even take you down the memory lane reminding of a familiar person, place or object. Its even known to trigger moods. And hey how can we forget about its importance in building tastes (remember the last time u took medicine by closing your nose tap?) Isn't that an awesome power. LOL don be scared, I'm neither obsessed with my nose nor I'm planning to start a lecture on it. Just want to share a few adventures of my olfactory senses.



It struck me when I missed the morning cab one day and had to take the BMTC bus to whitefield. While standing for last 30 mins in jam packed bus, I came across a plethora of different smells. Suddenly I realised how many different odors we encounter in our day to day life, unconsciously rejecting the common ones. So here's a bit of my conscious effort to distinguish them using the best of my nasal abilities.

My Olfactory Thesis -

1) The first smell that started it all was that of the steel bars in bus. It was quite familiar smell from my childhood when I used to go standing in bus to main city. Held tightly by the those sweat soaked hands, it emanated a sharp metallic smell, not easily distinguishable if u haven't travelled that way in summer heat.

2) The most common smell of pollution. I categorized it into the following, you can choose u're favorite:
(a) 'Dark Fantasy': Diesel combustion by Trucks-Bus combined.
(b) 'Sizzling Slaughter': Courtesy of Autorickshaws not running on CNG.
(c) 'Chokers Choice' : The beautiful blend of various oxides, soot and particles at the Traffic Light. Kind enough to put any young lung to rest.

3) That Velvet smell of sweating job aspirants. If u're frequent to DJ's at various marriages and parties, then u must be aware of this one (remember the last time DJ played u're favorite song and all hands went up in air ;-).

4) The smell of expensive deos and perfumes worn by few techies. Lost in office issues and deadlines, they were too preoccupied to enjoy that costly effect.

5) Ladies section (near front door) boasts of fresh smell of Gajra. Though still going strong, poor gajra is finding it difficult to survive on those tight clipped hairs these days.

As it goes, the best was kept for the last. After the morning ordeal, I ensured that I won't miss the evening shuttle. As soon as it started, I got the last surprise of the day. Cool breeze from the open door carried a few complex chemical particles that translated into a H-E-A-V-E-N-L-Y smell in my nose. I saw a lady in saree, sitting on my front left. Too close to escape my nose radar. I had a tough time scanning my limited database of all the possible deos and perfumes of ladies but couldn't pinpoint any. First time in my life I was feeling envious to a sniffer dog. Anyways, I just plugged in my mobile radio and closed my eyes. Heavenly smell and some great music, deadly combination. Ahh, a nice perfume can be a beautiful gift for me. Anyone's listening?? ;-)