Everything went quiet. I did not realize till now how much of the experience of life was smell. It was a meditative silence at times turning eerie. I talked about the especially unsettling eeriness during the lockdown. Now I wonder if part of it was not feeling the nature and people around me through smell.
The aromatic herbs we eat, how much of the taste is actually smell? The Lucknow Saunf I so love has a beautiful sweet taste that is not much affected by lack of smell. Pudina however lost its personality. The taste doesn’t seem to be its key strength. The gaminess of meat is a lot about smell, I knew that, but experiencing it was a revelation. Without the overpowering smell, I experienced the nuance of texture and tastes more deeply. Lack of smell accentuated feeling of other senses.
My strong sense of smell is not just my own, it is an asset for my household. We realized that as we keep adding to the pile of burnt vessels every day. Over the years, we have been depending on my nose to tell us when the milk is boiled; when the butter is clarified; when the khichadi is about to burn and needs water. Without my nose we need to have other processes like standing there and visual inspection to manage these tasks.
My sense of smell is waking up again. I got a whiff of a strong-smelling ointment as if it was the light aroma of Jai Jui from the neighbours’ garden on a summer breeze. You feel it for a split second and it is gone before you can acknowledge it to yourself. It is the most pleasing sensation. Whiff of eggplant roasting was like heaven. I would have been fine without the whiff of open sewers but even that was mesmerizing. As if I am waking up from a deep sleep.
devayani tirthali 