From smelly to smiley-

Was cleaning the fridge  in the afternoon when I came across some mint leaves, just as I tried to sort out the fresh ones from the ones which were losing their colour , a whiff of fresh mint aroma reached me ---I was suddenly reminded of KOLYNOS toothpaste which we used when I was a kid in the 50s and 60s it had that fresh minty smell and made us feel really fresh ---I drifted into the world of my childhood as I picked up the bunch and put it to my nose ----was just smiling to my self and thinking about those days--- when I was reminded of  this contest on indiblogger ----
 which says Tell us about the nostalgic memories you associate with different smells or fragrances in your home
and I let loose the  memory cards of  my brain I let them run wild and reach all nooks and corners of the past ,specially of my childhood . I could smell flowers .I could smell the early  morning rains and the rain drenched roads which reached  us to school. The aroma of lovely samosas and jalebis being fried  and tea being made in the roadside stalls .I was also reminded of the sweet fragrance of  the champa( beautiful pale yellow ) flowers and also of the rose  and this took me to the days when we used to press flowers between the pages of our books and the rose had the characteristics of retaining its fragrance .

As I picked up a particular brand of talcum powder I was reminded of my hostel days where the girls thought I was using perfume and were amazed when I told them it was the subtle fragrance of the talcum powder they were admiring and not any perfume ---similarly  a particular brand of soap which is our family's favourite and adorns all our bathrooms had fallen out of grace a few years ago because I just couldn't tolerate its smell when I was expecting my elder daughter . Similarly  the smell of rice being cooked was intolerable to my younger daughter before she arrived into this world...and now she survives only on rice ......

I think people are so correct when they say women have a very strong sense of smell ---we do ----because we can smell food getting burnt ,or we distinguish good food from spoilt ones by smelling them , we can tell whats cooking just by a waft of aroma and we love fragrances ....we associate nearly everything in our life by their smell -----there are such lovely romantic dialogues and songs in movies which say that we can sense the arrival of our boloved by the fragrance which accompanies them .:))

Anyways ....

 I drifted into my past and the smile on my face sent my daughters  wondering  what the reason was --when I told them about this contest they let out a laughter ---"now mom we will have to tolerate this dreamy look in your eyes and the smile on  your face  for as long as you don't finish writing your post   By the way why don't you write about that incident about which we were talking when we bought our first ambipur spray ?? "

Oh yes how stupid of me here was every thing on a platter and I was wasting my time .

It was about 7 years back ---My brothers family was visiting us when we all decided that since everyone was free and hubby too could afford a a few days leave why not visit the Kanha wild life sanctuary --and hey presto we finished our packing ---my sister got busy in the kitchen packing eatables for the road the house became a flury of activity .All done we clamoured into our beds for a few hours sleep --but the excitement of travelling together just wouldn't let sleep come near us and so like always we were up and ready to embark on our journey at 4 am THE SINHA"S USUAL JOURNEY TIME.

Needless to say we had a great time and on our return journey when we  decided to take a turn for Nagpur ( my brothers place ) instead of to Bhilai ( my place) we could stay with them for one day and then proceed to Bhilai .Well we reached Nagpur at about 2.3o p m had lunch in a restaurant and then finally reached home all ready for a post lunch siesta and my sister in law reassured us that the house would not need any cleaning up etc as she had prepared the beds and covered them and the rest of the furniture with sheets just to avoid hard work after coming from from the vacations ---we were all full of admiration for her ---what a perfect housewife !!!!

As we reached home a beautiful sight awaited us --the gardener had looked after the garden well ----then my sis-in-law inserted the  key in the lock and turned back to  welcome us with a smile ----But she was greeted by us with  our  noses covered with handkerchiefs and she herself turned 180 degrees with horror in her eyes -----a horrible stench was coming from inside the house .As she stepped in she screamed and we all rushed in 

 !!!!

----dead mice  were strewn all around about 6 or 7 or may be 10 ---it was a scene from an Alfred Hitchcock movie semi dark room 8 people standing wide eyed full of fear and dead rats were lying all over----actually my sis in law had left a packet of rat poison powder and the mice had eaten it all .

What  a horrible sight and what a horrible stench no one could bear to stand there we shifted to our company rest house for a day accomodated the rest of the family too .My sis-in-law spent the whole day cleaning the house with the help of  servants and some workers from the factory then they got it disinfected but the stench would not leave .My mother suggested they  use "dhoop" which is used in" havans" They spent hundreds of rupees on dhoop, scents, perfumes,air fresheners and what not but it took many many days before the smell left the house and  it took still longer to leave our system --a feeling of nausea  would  grip us  just by the thought of it all .  

A few months back a similar incident took place in our house .It  was just that I had planted rat poison in all nooks and corners of my house to kill a rat which was playing havoc  and will you believe it ? if I said that it only ate synthetic things like plastic and rubber etc in fact it destroyed the cable wire of one our computers and this was enough to infuriate the whole family So I bought some rat poison the --and the mouse  decided to attain" moksha"  by lying  under  our shoe rack I picked it up and threw it and then told my family no more mouse in the house and that they could let their pet mouse( computer wala ) out without the fear of being chewed up.But the  stench  persisted  and started becoming unbearable ---it reminded us of  that  incident in my brothers house .We got scared and the whole family got busy looking for more dead mice ---and yes indeed... there were three more and they had started rotting, hence  the smell. But we had by now been introduced to the Ambipur air fresheners so we went and got two sprays and hey presto our house was free of the smell. In  no time it had turned from  "Smelly To Smiley!

What a relief. 

Now of course Ambipur is a regular on our shopping list and does my house smell sweet ??? it does.

 

note---(both pictures are from the net ) and this is my entry for the www.facebook.com/AmbiPurIndia contest on indiblogger

freedom at midnight

Freedom cannot be bought

Its always won and fought.

Who bring it through bloodshed

Have many a tears to shed.

And families are left distraught.

We got freedom at midnight

And showed the world our might

Our might was non -violence

We pacified the tyrants.

And got what was our right.

But Freedom ,do not squander,

Give this a thought and ponder.

That Freedom to be deserved

Is precious and needs be preserved.

By HONESTY , INTEGRITY and VALOUR.

Valour,honesty and integrity

Stem when we take RESPONSIBILTY

to preserve and not destroy

the harvest of our toils.

For that is our Identity.

So Freedom is not a toy

Which we can repair and destroy

Its our Identity and Dignity

Lets shoulder the Responsibility

To live for it or Die.

The form is " Limerick "–  with 5 line stanzas following the pattern of aabba (which denotes that each stanza is of five lines of which 1st, 2nd & 5th lines rhyme; and so do the 3rd & 4th )

MY Car Decor ----and the beauty spot of my car

We had just come back from Pune and our  two and a half year old grand-daughter was the VIP passenger accompanying us --it was her first trip by car and we were all so excited about her accompanying us .We had stored in lots of eatables just so she doesn't have any problems if we are held up on the road and then we had flasks full of hot water and tins of baby food ---in short ---a days over night journey had rations for a week . And her ladyship knew how important she was she went on demanding food and attention all throughout the journey and we went on providing willingly --for every one item demanded by her we had 4 ready ------and the result of all this pampering was that when we reached home the next day and handed the car keys to the  car wash fellow he came in panting ....

"madam  aapko 50 rupiye alag se dene padenge ( I demand an extra tip of 50 rupees)poora ek ghanta lag gaya aapki gadi saaf karne mey(----have spent 1 full hour on your car alone ")

I went to the car park with him to check if he had cleaned the car properly ----he showed me the heap of rubbish that he had taken  out of the car ----as soon as I opened the door a smell greeted me and I backed away --

" yeh kya safayee ki hai tumne ye badboo kya hai ??( How have you cleaned ---what is this bad odour?) ---he shrugged ---

"kya karoon madam badboo ja hi nahi rahi hai"( what to do madam the odour refuses to go )

I suggested a lot of things like phenyle, camphor even dettol  ---but nothing worked ---in fact all these disinfectants added their odour to the already persistent one .

I was worried not only about the smell ---but also about Hubby's reaction ----he would blame it all on me . First  on  my excitement with the baby and then  on my laxity with the car wash boy. He would say I can't even handle a car wash boy . He would say, that that he will make the same boy clean up on his next visit .But that was to be after two days ---what do we do till then ? rather what do I do  till then Hubby dearest had not yet been to the car and I dreaded the moment  when he would.

Suddenly I was reminded of the  "Ambi Pur Mini Vent Clip" I had received a few days back --"light citrus"  ---was the fragrance  ---had never used any car fresheners  before ---Why not give it a try ?? thought I and ran home --brought the small packet , took out the perfume and put it near the AC---aaah!!! a whiff  of sweet fragrance greeted me --I let the AC run for a few seconds shut it locked the car and went home praying to GOD to  let the perfume take over the bad odour ---just as they say  in the advertisements.

AND will you believe it!!!! the adds are true .When we ( both hubby and I ) went to the car and opened the door the sweetest fragrance greeted us. It does" eliminate odours."

"This car wash boy is good "said hubby

 " Thankyou Ambipur " said I   producing the small bottle and handing it over to him

Now Ambipur has become an integral part of our "car decor".