Gita's Marvellous, Magical Nose!

This rare gift of hers was discovered when she was three years old. When her father would be at the gate, standing 12 feet away at the door, she would accurately tell if he had bought big bananas or small, orange cream biscuits or pineapple flavoured ones, jasmine flowers for the Gods or roses for her mother.

In short, she could be very, very specific in guessing exactly, what was a furlong away – thanks to the special ability of her unique nose. Sometimes this was a source of sheer entertainment too. When she was five years old, her Dadi would make her stand in the garden and ask her what was being cooked in the various neighbours’ houses.

She would turn her nose in different directions, sniff for a minute and say, “Louki and fish and some spicy brinjal cooked in mustard oil in  Mukherjees’ house, in Sejal’s  house ….  dhoklas and khandvi and the same old pepper rasam of yesterday in Iyer Thatha’s house.” After visitors had left their place, Gita could accurately state what soap, hair-oil, deodorant or perfume they had used that day. It had its uses too.

She often warned her absent minded mother when a dish was about to get burnt. Whenever Gita was at home, her mother never used diapers for her baby brother – there was no need to, for she could immediately tell when he needed a change of his cloth nappy. And this was a big boon considering the ill-effects of diapers on the environment. She could even tell when a flying cockroach had entered the house unseen – as she got a peculiar smell. It would then be hunted and driven out. Her family was really proud of her.

Soon news of her exceptional ability spread far and wide – among the extended family, the neighbourhood and finally in the town they stayed. Before long, reporters from various newspaper offices and TV stations thronged Gita’s house. A show was telecast about her when she was seven, where she was blindfolded and made to smell and identify many things like ingredients of the kitchen, brands of soaps and perfumes, various dishes etc.; and she had answered with 100% precision!

A few days before Gita’s ninth birthday, an inspector of the Anti-Terrorist squad visited their house to seek her help in detecting hidden bombs and other ammunition. Gita’s dad was very upset. As it is he was scared that all the popularity was affecting his little girl quite badly. She was not having a normal, carefree childhood and other children wanted to befriend her only because she was famous.

Moreover, he couldn’t imagine her doing the work of a sniffer dog. He firmly told the inspector that he had decided to get a surgery done for his child whereby her talent would perish. He said her nose would soon be as normal as anybody else’s. The cop was flabbergasted. He couldn’t imagine why anyone would want to avoid popularity. He tried to convince Gita’s dad about how she could be of great service to society. But her dad was adamant. He said he wanted his daughter to lead an ordinary life. The inspector returned disappointed.

Soon after, Gita’s family went to a resort for a long holiday. On their way back, Gita had a small, neat bandage over her nose.  The whole town talked about Gita’s loss of power. Her admirers and fans dwindled slowly and only true friends stuck on.  Her nose slid down from its flighty, prime position of main subject to that of a mere object. She now led a mundane but happy and content life.

When Gita was about twelve old, she was returning home from school one evening with her friend Sia. She stopped outside Mr. Ali’s house and asked her friend, “Sia, can you smell cooking gas?” Sia tried hard to smell all around her. “I’m not able to get any smell other than the dried fish being fried close by. It’s really strong. How come you can smell gas? I thought your nose was normal now.”

“Sia, you don’t need a special nose to smell a gas leak,” said Gita, panicking now. She knew that Mr. and Mrs. Ali would be out working and their young children would be home with their grandmother and maid. She pushed open the gate and ran into their garden.

The children were skipping rope, their grandmother was knitting on a rocking chair and the maid was watering the plants. They all stopped a while to shout a surprised “Hi” to Gita and Sia. Without answering them Gita rushed to the back portion of the house and stopped near the back door.

“The gas cylinder is leaking,” she shouted. The others who followed her were shocked. The maid ran through the front door and opened the back door and all the windows of the house.

Finally coming to her senses, Sia yelled out, “Don’t put on any switch in the house or there could be a blast.” Old Mrs. Ali had tears of gratitude in her eyes. Thus Gita saved their lives and perhaps those of some neighbours too.

After that incident people had their doubts about Gita’s nose being ‘normalized’, though her family insisted it was, saying that under such circumstances, anyone could have smelt the liquid gas leaking and acted similarly if alert. Sia did not vouch for that theory though; but she respected her friend’s wish for discretion. However, she was often caught staring at Gita’s nose admiringly.