Wednesday, June 04, 2008

The greatest 'Mood Elevator'

Moods are subject to change, with time, place, people, thoughts, just about anything. My all time favorite mood elevator has been shopping. But, like everything else, it too comes at a price. The number of hours for which my good mood prevails increases exponentially with the amount of money I spend. Perhaps, that way, I feel that I have done right justice to the use of my mother's hard-earned money.
No, today I am not going to discuss my pleasures with shopping. It's rather about something more unusual, something that at most times does not come with a price - SCENT - the greatest of mood elevators.

The other day, I had gone to the T.Nagar vegetable market, which, thanks to my two years' hostel stay, I had almost forgotten. Not that I have ever missed the place at all; on the contrary, I have many times in my past dreaded going there, what with the crowd and the noise, among other things. This day was different. The crowd and the noise did not disturb me, 'cos I was swept away by the scent of the market. I was transformed back to college days, when I used to walk back from the railway station along with my bosom buddy Sups, both of us sharing a laugh over sheer nonsense. And, all through the evening, I was in great spirits, despite having visited one of the most dreadfully jammed and crowded parts of the city.

There are other scents that have such feel good effects on me, even minus the nostalgia part.

The scent of wet ground
After a light shower,
Of fresh flowers and saffron
In the temple on a beautiful morning,
Of friams in simmering oil
On a cloudy Sunday evening,
Of new clothes enough
To satiate my shopping hunger,
Of mint, of spinach,
Of melting butter on my toast,
Of strawberry gloss and new books,
Of old, weathered library books too

And, there are many more too, which, owing to my poor, aging memory, I am not able to remember anymore. This reminds me of
Deepa's post in which she says how nice it would be if we had some mechanism to save scent, like how we save AVs.

P.S.: The phrase 'Mood Elevator', most predictably, was given by an FPM (Fellowship Program in Management) student! Who else can globe so much! Thanks Mani :)

6 comments:

மணிகண்டன் (Manikandan K S) said...

Thanks Kavitha for acknowledging my globeness and giving me footage :)

Yes, Scents are a wonderful thing. Some of my favorites:
- the "mann vasanai" the scent of the wet sand as the first drops of rain begin to kiss mother earth..
- the smell of the strong "Leo Coffee"
- of freshly made idlis, and
- of jasmine

A Random Traveler said...

Good one!
Sometimes small is beautiful :)

Anonymous said...

Good stuff di ! ya, thanks for the footage ofcourse ;)

nalla anubhavichu ezhudi irukke :) Totally relate to wat u ve written...abt some scents bringing some emotions, and also evoking certain memories :)

And shopping rocks big time !!!

A Random Traveler said...

And regarding storing scent, engineers are working on that.
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-66762178.html

:)

RK said...

Good one. Nostalgia!

But I have a doubt!! -> "And, there are many more too, which, owing to my poor, aging memory, I am "not able to remember" anymore. This "reminds me" of Deepa's post "

not able to remember - reminds me

what is this called?? Oxymoron? :P

Madhurjya (Banjo) Banerjee said...

The smell of first rains... priceless :)