Neroli Lady….

I am sitting now in this Lebanese restaurant called ‘Epidor’ in the oysterbay area of Dar es salam, and for no reason I am thinking of this Neroli lady i happen to meet in my trip to U.S. It was my last day in America before flying back to Africa, where my hosting brother took me to this old Pike-place market in downtown Seattle.

I saw her talking to one of her customer, advising on the type of perfume oil to use in the upcoming lunar eclipse,…….this lady (having my personal reasons to be called Neroli) was somewhere between 22 to 24 years old , quite young, and having tattoo and piercing all over her body, but their was this shine in her eyes exposing her real identity, setting her aside from everybody…  (as if the character Jahan-zaad, from the epic poem of N.M.Rashid was coming to life, and watching me from the same eyes)…

“Yes! how can i help you sir!” she asked.
(Aah! yes, certainly you are the only one who can help, i thought) and said,

Neroli Lady

‘Yes i am already in love with your shop, tell me where to start’.I joked with her, but in reality that old shop was something to be loved. Lines and lines of old sepia glass bottles with no advertisement wrappings on them, just plainly and humbly showing the names of the things collected from across the world, spices, resins, dry flowers, sandal, and other perfume woods, lines and lines of anything to do with perfume materials stored on the shelf, each calling us all from their shadowy existence, waiting to give their very best, their sole existence to anyone who can rescue them…..

She looked at me and said, “Well you can follow my nose and look behind you on these small essence oils,or you can follow yours and see which smell attracts you the most”.
I turned back, and i found alot of finger size bottles containing essence oils of all sorts, hundreds of them,frankincense, patchouli, lavender, civet… all the few names i knew were there plus many more… and i told my brother, ‘man here goes my two three hundred dollars on these tiny bottles’. 

I remembered some years back when Ertyaas was initiating me into the world of natural perfumery and fragrances, she said once, “you must remember that every perfume is like a memory personified and lost in time, each time you smell a certain fragrance, some where deep down in our minds one of these old lost memory wakes up from its deep slumber, as if the legendary sleeping beauty is awoken by the kiss of a prince from far away land, and wanting to talk to you of all those years of waiting and silent wailing……” And here i was, in the middle of so many sleeping beauties waking up for me , so many memories , each letting me think of the gone by days,  the pine trees of my land, the butterfly museum, the autumn trees of Stockholm, the corals of Indian ocean, the walk along the river Seine, the long gone friends, all these memories that perfumed my life up until now……

“Here you go sir” packing all my purchases and said,”all these essence oils you have purchased are here and here is one small complementary gift from our shop so you donot forget us”. I checked and saw this small bottle containing the Neroli essence oil…….. and i thought, how would i ever be forgetting of this lady now, specially when i would be smelling Neroli……

Thank you, Neroli lady for making my day….

Note to myself:
If ever i convinced my self of settling up in U.S , one of the reasons would definitely be this Neroli lady and her shop…..

P.S:
Neroli is a very delicate essence oil, introduced into perfumery in 17th century by the princess of Nerola,Italy (see wiki for details)

Link of complete N.M.Rashid poem with English translation
Hasan Kuza-gur