Perfumes of Indian Winter : Top 10 Favorite Fragrances

 

My new year has started with an Indian adventure, in which the romance of a wedding was punctuated by the typical stress of wedding planning and last minute arrangements. There were aspects that I never expected in my romantic vision: air travel mishaps, packs of wild dogs, naughty milk stealing monkeys. The tailors who insisted on leaving extra fabric were not always helpful -- “but you cannot stay this thin after marriage, you will gain weight, how will you wear it then!” And the Indian concept of time as an infinitely stretchable resource required considerable patience. Yet, amidst all the unpredictable and sometimes amusing scenarios, everything turned out be to be even more splendid than we had anticipated.This was mostly due to our friends and family who actively participated in every part of the ritual and made our wedding special and unforgettable. It was truly a month of Indian fairy tale, and now that it is over I already miss the people and the places that were an integral part of that experience. And of course, the scents, because India provides the most vibrant olfactory kaleidoscope of any place on earth, vacillating between resplendent and repulsive, vibrant and vile, delicate and potent, demure and sensual. Therefore, my list below reflects my Indian memories, which shaped my winter of 2010.