Due to my education i got to move at many places in India, My upbringing was in the soil of Varanasi, and after moving out side from Varanasi, i came to know the different place have different smell too, besides the difference in languages, water and people.
I got to know what fragrance actually is, and how we are surrounded by it after I spent two years on learning about it. Here I mention fragrance of four major cities- VARANASI, DEHRADUN, KANNAUJ & RAMPUR .
Varanasi :
Varanasi is a sacred religious place where you can hear sound of bells, Shankha, and chanting of OM right from the 3am in the morning itself. If i do not concentrate on a particular street of Varanasi, and feel the smell of Varanasi as a whole, oriental-balsamic-woodyflowery note are enough to describe the scent of Varanasi.
Surrounded by Mother Ganga Varanasi maintains its fresh oceanic node always. Smell of Dhoop and Agarbatti is spread all over the street.
Flower, Lamps, camphor, decorate the environment, which is enriched by the chanting sound of Om and the classical Music rhyme coming from the streets.
Sound of Bishmillah's Sahnayi and the milky note coming from the nearby lassi shop is worth to praise.
Dehradoon :
I will always bow down to this city of Doon surrounded by the shivalik mountain range. This city with greenery all around, has always make me lost in it fragrance.
As soon as i get off the train at station and stepped toward my university, a breeze passed by touching me and welcomes me with the piny smell it had brought.
Almost at everyplace in Dehradun i got to smell this piny node, also along with this i got to see the sparks of nature when i felt green, mossy, woody node with some flowery and fruity note, the spark did not ends here, all this smell was immersed in the smell of ice berg .
Really, nature is the best perfumer!
Kannauj:
Kannauj is a city of ittra itself, from where I should start telling about it. Speaking about the ittra of kannuaj is like showing lamps to Sun.
It is said the smell lies in air but kannauj is the only place where even sewage water have smell.
Here work is going on deg - bhpka in every other home and i have no hesitation to say this city is like Grasse in France which is famous for its perfume all over the world. 80% population here is connected with the manufacturing of perfume directly or indirectly.
Whether it is Ruh-gulab, Shmama or the smell of wet soil in the first rain, kannuaj is wearing all these like beads in the garland and the sweetness of gulkand can clearly be felt in the voice of the people here.
Rampur:
Rampur caters the 60% of the world’s requirement of Menthol/mint. This fact is enough to tell the hard work and dedication of the people here. Being attached to Delhi, Rampur is still able to maintain the smell of Nainital.
It is decorated with the smell of eucalyptus oil on one side and on the other side basil methyl pamplemousse, cis-3 hexenol make its morning fragranceful.
One can feel smell of mint from every other lane of Rampur. Rampur is a city where you can hear voice of ajaan, gurudwara and bells of temple simultaneously.
Conclusion:
Whether it is Balsamic fresh note of Varanasi or piny green mossy of Dehradun or flowery-woody and smells of soil of Kannauj or minty-rustic-spicy node of Rampur; every smell has its own identity and no one is neither less nor greater than any other.
All rights reserved | The Perfumer's Valley