Rainy day scent-iments: A treasure house of traditional Indian monsoon fragrances
From India’s seasonal diversity is born a treasure house of traditional scents. Krishnaraj Iyengar sniffs-up the ideal Monsoon scent.
200 MONSOONS OLD
“We have been around for more than 200 monsoons!” chuckled Mukul Gundhi, the jovial seventh generation nose of old Delhi’s legendary Gulab Singh Johrimal house of fragrance established in 1816. Meticulously retrieving exquisitely designed vintage fragrance jars from old wooden shelves, Gundhi offered me on the back of my hand as per tradition, dabs of the legendary ‘Mitti ka Attar’, the moist fragrance of the otherwise parched earth after the first showers of the season! “Indian fragrance tradition boasts of natural seasonal scents. While Mitti Attar, Kewda and Khus are age-old summer scents for their cooling effect and the warm and spicy Hina, Shamama and Musk Amber for winter, monsoons are when the rich and deep red ‘Motia’ (Jasmine Sambac) and Chameli are harvested” he explains.
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