It is the smell of camphor.
The first instance of me getting acquainted with camphor is a bit hazy. I must have been around 3 years old and was visiting Chengannur with my father during the Christmas holidays. One of the workers went to Sabarimala for pilgrimage I was given a bit of the prasadam. it had malar, slivers dried of coconut, pieces of jaggery and pacha karpooram. I don’t remember if it is prasadam from Sabarimala or some other temple. But I do remember the taste of pacha karpooram..it was so unique and I loved it very much.
All the womenfolks in my family owned a treasure box. Amma’s was leather, Chechy’s was metal and my grandmother’s was wood and mine is this blog!, (Yaya and baby too have their own treasure boxes! Baby is the worst, she needs a new box every year to keep all her treasures)
My grandmother lived alone in her house almost all her life. There weren’t a lot of interesting things in her house apart from her ledger and her thadi petti ( wooden chest). And every day while my grandmother worked in the fields, I went through her wooden chest. There were few chatta &mundu..Inside one of the mundu was her golden bangle and her ring wrapped in a purple jeweller’s paper, safely hidden. Right at the bottom of the box was a brown paper bag with serrated edges. I had not seen much machinery in those days and it always puzzled me as to how anyone could cut the edge of the paper bag so neatly with scissors. ( just as I wondered years later about all those pringles potato chips being the same size.. how did they manage to grow potatoes the same size?)
As soon as you lift the paper bag, you could smell the camphor. it was so strong. Inside the paper bag was a brand new kasavu neriyathu.
It was our secret. I was told from the time I could remember that it is my job to bathe ammachi when she died and wrap her body in that brand new kasavu neriyathu.
My grandmother worked in the fields all day and she didn’t own a great deal of clothes..and those that she owned were all stained with banana sap etc. Even the one she kept aside to wear to church every sunday was moth eaten and the damage was cleverly hidden between the pleats.
I think she didn’t want to waste the money and buy new clothes..or perhaps she really didn’t have money..or was it that it affected the work in the farm if she took a day off and went shopping?
I don’t know.
But she took good care of the neriyathu in the brown paper bag. She bought camphor tablets from the nadodi who came once a year to our house. Camphor is known to deter moth infestation.
Was my grandmother a visionary who knew to prepare for her death in advance because all her clothes would be in bad shape when death came calling and she didn’t want to hassle anyone to buy and waste their precious money for her funeral clothes or was she a tragic heroine of the story who worked non stop taking care of the land for her ( ungrateful) son knowing very well that he and his children would never take care of her when the time came?
At least the puzzle of pringles chips being uniform size has an answer..
As for my love for Camphor.. it still continues..Every time I open my pantry, I stop, take a deep breath, smell the camphor..