smells like...

In India and especially in Kolkata you gotta have a very heightened sense of smell or a very poor one, with the former helping you to pick up the faintest of good ones that you might encounter in a day and the latter pretty much keeping you in a spirit of abstainance.

Alighting at Howrah station early this morning after an extended weekend back at home, the first smell that I could distinguish from the melee of smells was that of starched bed sheets that you get in AC berths in trains. It was a smell of comfort and of affordable luxury, this realisation dawned upon as I had almost made up my mind to bear with the smell of train toilets whoose doors are left open because I was careless enough to not to book a ticket when they were available or RACable or TATKALable.

Just near the berth door I bumped into a 'Coolie' and they are not exactly the best brand ambassadors for deodorant advertisements. That was the smell of hard work and toil for livelihood. Why else would you get up at 5 AM in the morning to carry the loads of strangers in a winter morning.

These people greet you even before the TTC at the exit of platforms, bump into you to even suggest the place where you live in (I was always taken to be someone who would go to Salt Lake, even if I yelled at them and said that I live near Highland park. The minimum I can say about these two places is one is North and the other is South Kolkata) and claim to give you the best deals in the world(it costs me 220 ruees from Bhubaneswar to Kolkata, a distance of 440 kms and guess what have I paid on a normal non-bandh, non-fire day to Ajaynagar a distance of 20 kms from Howrah-250 bucks). You really can't have a conversation with them, they smell of burnt tobacco(bidi) or pudia(some white powder like stuff in a distinct steel box). That is the smell of irritation and unwanted, even despised street smartness on their part. Why are you so greedy for extra 50-100 bucks if you gonna buy more tobacco with that and shove it into your system(you know what word i wanted to use here).

If you have passes by Science City(Topsia) or ITC Sonar Kolkata you would ready feel repugnant and pukish. This smell would remind one of Kolkata unmistakably. They say there are some leather tannaries and they burn/process leather and hence the smell etc etc. Frankly my dear I give a damn, the smell is so pathetic and disgusting and to top that all you have the best(people who make the vital choices of investment, policy, people etc) visitors to the city coming and staying there(check ITC's ratings). This is the smell of insulation (from what should be done) an d an unaffectedness until something climbs up on your head and cries to be get done.

My taxi halted just in front of a public pay-and-use toilet, I was looking around and cursing my fate"of all places here, not a yard ahead or behind" when this young chap who probably managed the toilet caught my attention. He still had a brown blanket on him, there was another one under the same blanket of course, fast asleep and oblivious to any other thing. There was absolutely no signs of disgust or hopelessness or anything on his face, just a simple expectation for the first customer of the day. This is the smell of reconciliation, acceptance of your destiny and things around you.
Well, there are other smells as well, the smell of puchka(pani puri), sondesh, rasogolla, cigarette, tea in a kulhad (earthen pot), misti doi, jhaal mudi, ilish maach, mutton jhol, peas kachauri, multitude of rolls, whisky and thousands of other things, but I am little impatient and I don't think there is any point talking about these things, whenever you get a chance just eat them. Bon Apetit.