PERFUMES OF LIFE.

I love perfumes.
I always wear them as they keep me in high spirits and give me a spring in my stride. They impart a subtle confidence in me. My staff come to know my arrival with the waft of my perfume just as I alight from the car. They start running helter skelter preparing for the rounds. They are not strong but make a statement and are an indelible part of my personality. The Mumbai heat and stench necessitates their unabashed use. A perfume is a part and parcel of my vanity kit.

I love women who wear mild floral perfumes. I am instantly attracted to them like butterflies to the flowers. They get an instant respect and my strict unwavering attention.

I detested our dissection class of Anatomy and hardly ever attended it. The putrid smell of the cadavers and the formalin just used to percolate my olfactory organs and hit my brain. An instant headache with nausea used to be the resultant reaction. I used to play carrom for a lengthy period of 4 hours during that class. The smell of the boric powder and the woody coins alongwith the ivory striker were certainly a decent proposition. A couple of smokers used to add their acrid smoke rings to uplift the dull air. I gave my Anatomy exams wearing a eucalyptus oil coated handkerchief mask. The examiner who basked in such a stinky room failed to notice my discomfort, but anyway mercifully passed me.

Hamida walked into my OPD that day with her husband in tow. A strange revulsive smell accompanied her to my consulting room. Her husband complained to me about her strange anti social behaviour and refusal to eat her meals. He also stated that it had been a month since her last shower. The smell was nauseous and unbearable for me. I grabbed a small clove from my drawer and started examining Hamida. Seeing my kind and concerned demeanour, she immediately broke down into tears. She pleaded helplessness at her sad state. Her husband was legally allowed to be polygamous and he had brought a small 16 yr old girl to be his new wife. The nocturnal screams of the new bride drove her mad. She despised her sadistic husband and made a decision of being unkempt so that he would not approach her. The stench would repel him. It indeed did. I could not help the situation.

A few months back I lost my uncle and went to the funeral. I was supposed to do the final rites and light the pyre. The smell of this place was mixed with sandalwood, flowers and wood. A sour ghee fragrance also dominated this environ. As the body caught fire, I could smell the burning flesh. The body burnt and then the bones, to convert to ashes.

The ashes have no smell or any fragrance. One day, we would also turn to ashes.

I realised the futility of our cosmetic indulgent life and walked back home with a heavy heart.