Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Fragrances of the day

We can capture sounds and sights of nature... my biggest grouse is that I can't capture smells. Just walking down a road in this heat and cursing the sun, humidity [or lack thereof!], pollution, politics... and then, then you stop because between all of this a very divine smell just caught your attention! The flower that was the cause for this sweet smell [which in turn caused you to stop cursing] is normally a simple off-white or pink 4-5 petalled creation of the almighty.

Hanging from a tree, it just looks at you innocently. The fruits around it could be any size, shape or colour. Time evaporates, sun melts, humidity is of no consequence and, by the way, what is politics!! Pollution will have to wait because a flower just bloomed and spread its fragrance. That moment the meaning of the word "divine" becomes clear.

You can photograph the flower. You can [if you had very good devices for doing so] perhaps capture the very subtle sound the flower must make when blooming. But what shall we do about the fragrance. The helplessness of it hurts. I can experience it but not capture it. No perfume factories/designers can work this magic. It solely rests with the flower.

The occassional maramalligai [Literally translated, tree jasmine. The stem is long and the petals are off-white and smells just like jasmine just subtler.], champa [Also called champangi. Don't know the English word for it] and many more. Tons of other flower trees line the roads of B'lore.

Throughout the year, and especially this time of the year, some or the other tree is in bloom providing people like me some respite.

Only, if some scientist could come up with a contraption that would allow me to capture smells like that. I would love to show off a few, maybe even upload to this blog :-)