Fragrant memories in little bottles

By Firoz Bakht Ahmed

Gulab Singh Johrimal's shop situated in Old Delhi's Shahjahanabadi Dariba in Chandni Chowk is one of the few in the country upholding the tradition of gundhis (perfumers). Founded during the reign of Akbar Shah II in 1816, the shop happens to be the oldest and a numero uno in Delhi. Ram Singh, the owner, explains how their ancestral work began around two centuries ago. The 65-year old gundhi nostalgically recounts his grandfather Lala Banarsi Dass telling him that there was a nehr (lake) named Nehr-e-Bahisht (lake from paradise) when this shop was opened and Dariba was the main shopping plaza for the Shahjahanabadi Delhi. Nobles of the court as well as commoners used to frequent the place that sold umpteen varieties of things ranging from ornaments and clothes to eatables of all kinds. The daughters of Akbar Shah II used to visit his shop in their palkis to choose their favourite attar.

Ram Singh's sons, Prafulla Gundhi, Atul and Mukul, dole out little bottles of 2, 5 and 10 ml of Bela, Chameli and Chandan attar to customers. A steady stream of customers keeps poring in - naturopaths looking for 'essential massage oils', young girls replenishing their stock of scent, old ladies in search of sandalwood powder and a few who seem to drop in as much for the daily gossip as to make purchases. Unimpressed by the continuous procession, the 65 year old SRCC graduate Ram Singh states, "These are time-pass clients. About five years ago the market in attar seemed to be dying out as the younger generation forsook traditional fragrances for rip-offs of western perfumes.

They even sneered at the traditional medicinal uses of attar. Claims Ram Singh Gundhi that lemon oil taken internally or smelt, is good for diabetes, asthma, boils and varicose veins; three drops of sweet majorem taken with a little jaggery cures migraine and hangovers. Nausea and vomiting are immediately controlled by petitgren oil. Besides, there are a lot many other illness that are cured by aromatherapy. The simplest example of aromatherapy is attar Gill (Sondhi Mitti) that has the aroma of the first monsoon showers and can cure blood pressure and the flow of blood through nose owing to intense heat.

Can there be anything that can evoke a memory like the waiting fragrance of a real desi perfume? In this regard, attar - the centuries old Indian art of blending perfumes - comes redolent with nostalgia when the elegant, grand and unhurried life style made people praise the aesthetic subtleties of sophistry and personal charm. Originally an Indian perfume, attar has a heritage of multipurpose potency behind it. Distilled with unforgettable fragrances of the world, they are presented in cut glass decanters for you.

Stolen from fresh flowers, the fragrances are whisked into glass bottles after a very tedious and costly process. In India people keep using the same perfume for the whole of their lives, which is quite unlikely for synthetic perfumes. People using foreign perfumes keep switching over from one to another, but attar users are addicted to one brand only. Former President Shanker Dayal Sharma all through his life remained a connoisseur of attar Chameli. Another President, Dr S Radhakrishnan, was fond of attar Majmua, a very light fragrance. Mrs Indira Gandhi, knowing the medicinal power of keeping one warm, used attar Hina in winters. Besides, the maharajas of the erstwhile states of Gwalior, Patiala, Darbhanga, Mysore and even Maharaja Ranjit Singh used the attars of Gulab Singh.

Krishan Mohan Singh, the brother of Ram Singh sits at the branch of the same shop at Chandni Chowk opposite the Town Hall. This is basically a retail shop opened by Lala Banarsi Dass about 70 years ago. According to Krishan Mohan, they are now in the seventh generation of the family dealing in attar business. There was leisurely era when people had lot of time at the disposal to be spent in such aesthetic niceties of the Kings, nawabs, rajahs and the nobility - usually men, all sat for hours choosing the attar that suited them most without being labelled as effeminate! At times exquisitely chiselled attardans (containers), often inlaid with ivory and containing marvellously carved cut glass decanters, were taken to the inner sanctums of the mansions and havelis of the aristocracy and nobility for their purdah-clad women to sample and choose their favourite attar. Of late, after being disillusioned by the western sprays, many people are turning to attars, tells Krishan Mohan's son Naveen Gundhi.

The moment we enter Dariba's shop, we find the ambience of Mughlai fragrances with an air of Victorian solemnity. There's an antique piece of clock still working quite in place with the old European decanters and carved wooden work in the Mughlai style. An ornate sandookcha (a low desk made of wood) by the gaddi (owner's seat) draws one's attention. It once belonged to Ram Singh's great-great-grandfather Lala Gulab Singh. It was passed down the generations-to Lala Joharimal, Lala Gopal Rai, Lala Banarsi Das, Rameshwar Das-until it was Ram Singh's turn brown to use it. This gaddi is now part of his habit. Some of India's most renowned attar sellers, apart from Delhi, are in Lucknow, like Izhar Ahmed and Sons, who established their shop, popularly known as Sugandhco, in 1850. Besides, one of the oldest in the trade in UP are Asghar Ali Mohammad Ali, also in Lucknow and established in the early 1800s. They have their own attar perfumeries in Kannauj.

The most exquisite and costly of all attars is the Rooh Gulab that costs Rs 3500 per 10 gm. vials. Even Chameli and Motia are very costly. Rooh Gulab, according to Imran Ahmed Abbasi of Izhar Ahmed and Sons, is the costliest attar. Rooh Gulab was a discovery of Noorjahan, the wife of Emperior Jahangir. Once when she went for her morning bath, she found an oily layer over the water kept to cool overnight. When distilled, it turned out to be the rose perfume that was a favourite with the queen. Some believe that it was the Persian mother of Noorjahan who actually discovered it. 100 kg of Gulab yields only two gm. of attar!

The real drama still remains in the dab of attar over the jingle of bangles of a Mughal princess or the wick of attar-soaked cotton bud behind the ear of a Mughal nobleman. Cleopatra used it, the heady art behind seduction a symbol of prosperity and of culture. In Aain-e-Akbari, Abul Fazal has mentioned about Akbar using the fragrant attar alongwith incense sticks burnt daily in gold and silver censers. A princess's toilette was incomplete without incense and attar.

Abul Fazal goes on to mention that the floral group primarily used for attar manufacture consisted of rose, bela, jasmine, champa maulshri and tuberose alongwith the roots like vetiver and ginger. The barks used are sandal, cinnamon and aloe. Some heavy odours like musk, myrrh and ambergris were also used a long with khus and a few other spices. In fact, attar is the pure extract of flowers in sandalwood oil. Sandalwood is the ideal base for perfumes as during the distillation, the original smell of sandalwood vanishes and the oil captures the fragrance of the flower. No chemical is used in attars as these are not blended but pure perfumes. That is the reason why a pure attar is exorbitantly costly. The gundhis (perfumers) have their own manufacturing units for growing flowers. Rose comes from Sikatra near Aligarh. Keora comes from Ganjam in Orissa. Chameli and motia comes from Sikandarpur on the Uttar Pradesh-Bihar border.

The method of making attars is quite cumbersome, through it may appear simple to the layman. It requires precision and perfection on the part of workers and not everyone can do it. It is the age-old process of hydro distillation. The fire for the purpose has to be cowdung and wood only, usually known as bhatti. Compact measurements of water and flower plants are taken in a copper vessel that in turn is placed inside a huge container know as degh. The scented steam passes through a hollow bamboo stem into the bhapka or the condenser placed in cold water with boiled and cooled essential oils. Water beneath the first container is heated and perfume from flowers and water together evaporte. The sandalwood oil base in the condenser fixes the scent. The more the distillation is repeated, the more fragrant the attar is and as a result more expensive as well.

As it is quite unaffordable to buy pure attars these days for animal products like musk, amber and myrrh are almost rare, synthetic attars too are manufactured that are far cheaper in comparison to the pure ones. These also have similar names, but they are specified and cost no more than Rs 100 per 10 gm vial. Some are - Gill (Mitti), Kewra, Gul-e-Hina, Molsri, Raat Ki Raani, Haarshringar, Motia, Hina, Kadamba, Patcholi etc. All these are available at Gulab Singh Johrimal in Dariba. Apart from these, quality incense sticks are available with the same fragrant formula like Madhuban Agarbatti, Nag Champa Agarbatti, Meera Chandan Dhoop etc. Not only that, pure Ganjam Korea too is available. For pleasing the gods and goddesses, Ram Singh also has havan samagri that he claims to be best in India. Truth is that no ritual is complete without sugandhi and attar. Not only that! Yogis use it to keep the respiratory tract moist.

But this quaint way of keeping fragrant is gradually slipping into the realm of "antique things in our grandfather's time," laments Krishna Mohan, but his elder brother is hopeful. "Attars are like flowers - as old as them, but as fresh as tomorrow's dew drops." So all you attar buffs, no more hankering after your choicest fragrances. Though nobody has the time and delicacy to make it passion any more, but fondness for them will remain - CNF.

MEN AND MATTERS
Mamata the politician, Sinha the tactician

From B L Kak

The tale of the two Central Ministers. Yes, of Ms Mamata Banerjee and Mr Yashwant Sinha. If the former acted as a flamboyant politician while presenting the Railway budget for the year 2001-2002, the latter left none in doubt about his skills as an ace tactician when he presented the general budget for the next financial year in Parliament on the last day of February.

Both Ms Mamata Banerjee and Mr Yashwant Sinha demonstrated unity in their approach to strengthen the hands of their Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee. But both of them demonstrated the stark difference in the posture and manner in which they presented their respective budgets in Parliament.

The lady from Kolkata (Ms Mamata) read out her proposals as though she was standing in a battlefield. That was why her hecklers from the Opposition benches got the better of her. Almost every time they shouted or booed her, she had to shout back and engage in some verbal exchange with them.

Instead of requesting the Speaker of the Lok Sabha to restore order to enable her to read out her budget speech, she allowed her counter-shouting to become uglier. She thought she had enough lung power to outshout her opponents. Obviously she did not. The result was that she almost choked through the last bit of her speech and one could not help feeling sorry for her.

Exactly two days later, on February 28, the Finance Minister, Mr Yashwant Sinha, had more than expected rumblings from the Opposition benches. But he acted in a different way altogether. He chose not to act as a typical politician. He, in fact, chose to act as a tactician, thereby establishing the validity of the expression "tact is better than talent".

Mr Sinha handled the murmurs of protest as a veteran. Not once did he lose his calm. He did not allow himself, at any stage, to get engaged in a meaningless counter-shouting exercise as Ms Mamata Banerjee had done two days ago, on February 26. Mr Sinha was in command throughout the nearly 120-minute speech.

At one point, he took a moment off to tell the Samajwadi Party lord and former Defence Minister, Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav, that as the food processing industry had got some concessions, he (Mr Mulayam) could now make some potato product. Mr Mulayam Yadav blushed when Mr Sinha’s remark evoked a big laughter in the House.

Another time, while announcing a sop to journalists, Mr Yashwant Sinha said that he was doing so "with the hope of better treatment at their hands".

Whatever the attitude adopted towards him by his critics, Mr Sinha, it is generally felt, has presented as good a package as could be devised according to the current wisdom. One need not overly doubt his claim of sticking to the fiscal deficit target of 5.1 per cent of GDP for the current year even after realising little on sale of Government stake in public sector units. The budget promises to push down the fiscal deficit to 4.7 per cent the next year and the possibility need not be sneered at as economic growth will take up any lags in taxes and duties.

The Centre could be losing a bit of discretionary powers with a single special excise rate of 16 per cent but corporates are justifiably way till they get to look at the detail. One is not sure of the rationale in making farm imports costly when there are no details on comparative price structures.

The Finance Minister has given an assurance to bring down the peak import duty to 20 per cent in three years and there is nothing to suggest the contrary as current alterations in customs duty will lead to a loss of Rs 2,128 crores. In scrapping all surcharge on corporate and non-corporate income-tax ( except the 2 per cent for the Gujarat earthquake) and taking a loss of Rs 5,500 crores on direct taxes, the conductor has seemingly struck the perfect note.

Mr Sinha is sure that buoyancy will make up for any slack in revenues and the economic players promise to play by the rules of the game, at least for now. Foreclosure laws for the financial system, a higher stake of 49 per cent against 40 per cent to FIIs in corporates, partial dereservation in the small-scale sector, phased removal of controls on petroleum, sugar, fertiliser and drugs are some of the finer offerings from Mr Sinha.

On the other hand, Ms Mamata Banerjee has failed yet again to switch to the fast track and provide the ailing system a much-needed dynamism. The operating costs have raced ahead, particularly following the hike in diesel prices, but the Railway Minister has steadfastly refused to raise passenger fares.

While the increased outlays on rail safety measures and better passenger amenities are obviously welcome, the tariff setting continues to remain distorted. The point that the Railway budget totally misses is that the suburban and long-distance second-class fares are one of the lowest in the world.

The Railways is not able to accommodate all long-distance passengers for want of adequate capacities, particularly on inter-city routes. Hence, the heavy subsidisation of fares-upwards of Rs 3,000 crores-is certainly not in the long-term interest of the travelling public. While passenger earnings increased 12 per cent last year, they accounted for only 28 paise for every rupee the Railways earned.

On freight too Ms Mamata Banerjee has been charitable, proposing a nominal rise of 3 per cent in rates for all non-essential commodities. Political considerations, particularly electoral politics, clearly guided and influenced the Minister for Railways. "All is fair in love and war", Ms Mamata Banerjee fully knows.