Mini crystal-like flasks containing mystical scented liquids called ittar are again bringing in time-honoured elegance and being rediscovered by aficionados and youth alike.
It is not only the perfume connoisseurs learning and researching the age-old secrets of the aromatic and magnifique ittar (derived from the Persian word atr which refers to fragrance). It is also not only about dabbing some of this fragrant oil on the palms, rubbing it together and applying on your clothes like an elderly in the family might have recommended. These magical potions in miniature glass, often hand-painted, bottles have found their way through as wedding souvenirs, are sprinkled on invitation cards to get the ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ and can also be the perfect flavouring agent for the savoury dishes.
People from all walks of life are now more curious and want to pat a bit of the ittar on the back of their hand, take a whiff, try to decipher the scent and embark on an exploration of its uses. The high-end perfumes — Gucci, Prada, Calvin Klein, et al. are finding market in Delhi but the students here have found a similar fragrance in our desi ittar, thanks to its cost-effectiveness.
“As many of our ittars are similar to the western scents, many of the college-goers flock our shop to try them out,” says Mukul Gundhi, co-owner of an ittar shop called Gulabsingh Johrimal in Dariba Kalan street of Chandni Chowk established in 1816.“Earlier, people often kept away from the streets of Chandni Chowk fearing traffic but now the Metro has made it more accessible. Women of the walled city, married in different areas of Delhi also return to us because of easy travelling,” he explains.You know its serious business when Gundhi tells us that his surname comes from the profession of perfumes.
A pure ittar, the history of which dates back to the Mughal era, is the extract of fresh flowers and also herbs mixed with sandalwood oil. "We distill the fragrance of the fresh flowers onto the sandalwood oil that is known as ittar. When you make fragrances from herbs, it's called heena which is a blend of extracts from the herbs with the sandalwood oil.
It is also used as an ittar and it's mainly used in winters because it has a warming effect when you apply it. It saves you from all effects of the cold. The nawabs and Mughal emperors used to take around 10 gms of the henna and spread it inside their quilts for its the warming effect, he shares.
There are various ittars for different seasons. For cooling effect during the sultry days there is the khus, fragrance of the first rains after the summers which is basically the ittar of rain-soaked soil. For winters its henna, shamama, mushkiambar, suhag, et al. which are herb-based. Throughout the year you also can use the floral ones like rose, chameli, motia, et al.
We were told that there was no secret laboratory behind or below the shop where the ittars are made. "We go wherever the flowers have been cultivated and we set up a seasonal factory and prepare the ittar. Since it's not feasible for us to travel everywhere so we have the employees doing it. One visit is necessary but we can’t be there for the entire time," Gundhi tells us.
The skin odour varies from person to person so when one wears an ittar, the fragrance should get enhanced with the skin odour instead of making a negative graph. "Since your skin odour is different, a fragrance which you like might not be liked by another person. This has to be noted by the customer. We can't guide them. We can show you the best ones or the best-selling ones but should pick something that would give an enhanced fragrance.
The first time customers aren't sure about what they want to buy so we show them a lot of variety. We them to pick and not force them into buying something particular," Gundhi asserts.
Customisation is not for pure ittar, but with the synthetic ones you can, we are told. "It isn't possible for us because when you blend two things, you are destroying the individuality. The concept of customisation of fragrance is completely different. For that the customer has to know what he wants, you should be able understand what he needs. Someone would want an ocean fragrance, now here you need to understand that he is asking for an aqua note. Another might want something woody, now if you want actual woody, then there are some who like it and some don’t.
To blend and create a new scent is also very time consuming. Plus there are no parameters set for charging the client when it comes to the customised ittars.
"It's like consultation, if you go to a lawyer, he'll take his consultancy fee and so will a doctor but we do not know what to charge. If we plan to charge them according to some set price framework, we will have to write the formula of all the ingredients and give it to them," Gundhi says. like a chef wouldn't give out his secret recipe, the perfumery too, wants to keep some of the components of ittars.
The pure ittars' sales are going down day-by-day like that of gulab, henna, chameli or motia because of the price factor but the synthetic ones sell more. "The ittar that you buy or what we make, have a very subtle fragrance, they are not intense at all like the western fragrances or the synthetic ones which we are blending. Pure ones costs `3,600 for 10 grams while the synthetic ones are for `200 for the same quantity. They ones are much cheaper and intense in nature," he shares.
The French know their fragrance and their inquisitiveness also lands them in the lanes here once in a while since they themselves are more equipped with the perfume industry know how. Gundhi tells us, "We do get French clients once in a while but not every day. They have their cultivation of many kinds of flowers. The biggest company working there is Givaudan and they also have their own R&D. They run post-graduation course centre and also teach at different kinds of perfumeries."