Delhiwale: ‘Scents’ the mood

The perfumes, hawker Abdullah says, are from India as well as abroad. He lists the places in a single breath — Kannauj, Assam, Tripura, Nagaland, Mumbai, Turkey, Dubai, Saudi (Arabia), France...”

Most Delhi streets can tick you off, but this corner is permeated with perfumes. Roadside carts tend to be loaded with fruits, vegetables, discounted clothes and sandals, but this cart in Hazrat Nizamuddin Basti’s main lane, facing Bhai Jameel’s hair cutting saloon, is stacked with jars and glass flasks containing various kinds of aromatic attar, each with a unique scent.

A fragrant corner in this cluttered city of Delhi.

“The thela (stall) is very old, but this business is new,” says hawker Abdullah, who used to sell combs and nail clippers on the cart until five months ago. These scented offerings belong to an attar shop nearby, he explains. The nearby Karim Hotel lane in this historic neighbourhood is lined with similar attar showrooms, their windows displaying perfume jars as big as milk cans. You must visit those shops just for their magnificence.

As there are no customers at the moment, Abdullah condescends to identify all the perfumes he has on sale.

Hearing him list the attar varieties is like reading the famous chapter in Iliad in which Homer catalogues the ships and warriors of the Achaean army. Some of these attar names are lifted off straight from designer labels.

The perfume seller renders his complete index in the sing-song tone of a country bard: Gucci, Armani, Golden Dust, Aseel, Sultan, White Oudh, Kashmiri Oudh, Assam Oudh, Attar Magnet, Zam Zam, Mukhallat Badar, Sandal, Zafran, Majmua, Salma, Sadar, Favake, London Night, Yasmeen, Itriful, Rooh Khas, Ruh Gulab, Shama Tul Ambar, among others.

And which of these smells of the exact moment when long awaited monsoon rain falls on our parched, cracked land during summers? Abdullah promptly picks up an aluminium bottle labelled Rooh Khas, and uncorks it. It indeed smells of geeli mitti (wet earth).

These perfumes, Abdullah says, are from India as well as abroad. He lists the places in a single breath — Kannauj, Assam, Tripura, Nagaland, Mumbai, Turkey, Dubai, Saudi (Arabia), France...”

Another hawker passes by. His cart comprises bowls containing cut fruits. The contrast between the two carts makes for a memorable sight, and also for memorable scents.