Even my mother is facing the same problem. she can't smell but this issue is new. She is facing from around 2 or 3 months. Thanks dear avinash for such valuable article!
-----Original Message----- From: AccessIndia [mailto:accessindia-boun...@accessindia.org.in] On Behalf Of Ajay Minocha Sent: Sunday, October 27, 2013 8:47 PM To: AccessIndia: a list for discussing accessibility and issues concerningthe disabled. Subject: Re: [AI] Living with Four Senses,By V Shoba Hello Avinash, felt very nice to read this article. thanks for sharing. I too have one cousin who can't smell after a road accident. now without asking and herting him, I could actually experience the world without smell. thanks again. On 10/27/13, habeeb. c <habee...@gmail.com> wrote: > Thank you avinash for posting such an article. It is for the first > time that i have read an article about such an issue. > regards > > On 10/27/13, avinash shahi <shahi88avin...@gmail.com> wrote: >> http://www.indianexpress.com/news/living-with-four-senses/1187813/0 >> She would like to smell ripe mangoes and the wet earth after it rains. >> Shachina Heggar, a woman who has lost her sense of smell, makes up for >> her sensory deprivation by indulging in nostalgia >> For Shachina Heggar, tea is coffee is hot water. "It all tastes the >> same," she says, sipping a chai latte. Long after I have finished my >> fragrant cappuccino, Heggar takes her time with her now-tepid tea. >> "Right now, I can smell water. Can you smell it?" she asks. "It's a >> fresh smell. I don't know how else to describe it." Heggar can't smell >> anything. Hold a jar of Vicks Vaporub under her nose and she won't >> know it from goo. But, every now and then, a heady nostalgia >> interrupts the sensory deprivation and she finds herself surrounded by >> imagined aromas - of wood burning at the farm in NR Pura, Chikmagalur >> district, where she grew up; of hot akki roti; of jasmine on the vine. >> >> Most of us have a range of about 10,000 different smells that we >> recognise, take for granted, and appreciate or wrinkle our noses at. >> For 27-year-old Heggar, who lost her sense of smell about a decade >> ago, only a handful of olfactory memories remain. These phantom smells >> surface at will, nesting in her mind for weeks and often months, as >> real to her as the smell of the coffee on the table is to me. >> >> Heggar wears a T-shirt, a miniskirt and Burberry's Weekend perfume. >> She has never known its fragrance, but a friend she trusts picked it >> out for her a few years ago, and it is one of only two perfumes she >> wears. It is flowery and bright, with a hint of musk and fruit. "That >> sounds like something I would wear," she says. Her vivacious >> personality does match the scent. She flippantly attributes her >> disability to three accidents in her childhood, a small scar from a >> particularly bad fall still visible on the ridge of her nose. "I was >> about seven or eight months old, playing on my dad's chest, when I >> fell and hit the edge of the cot. The scar has been there since," >> Heggar says. But her response to olfactory stimuli began to >> deteriorate much later, at the age of 18, and a medical examination >> failed to reveal the cause of the problem. "You must think I am crazy >> not to have it looked at again. I hate being subjected to medical >> scrutiny," she says, joking that she is happy not smelling the garbage >> piling up on Bangalore's streets. >> >> Of course, for every bad odour she is blissfully oblivious to, there >> are a hundred aromas Heggar would like to sniff. A foodie and a >> self-taught cook, she gorges on biryani but is unable to conjure the >> wafting fragrance of basmati rice. Since much of what we consider to >> be taste is actually smell, Heggar can't really experience flavour. "I >> can tell if the food is salty, sweet, sour or bitter, but that's about >> all," she says. "I make up for it by trying to imagine flavours I >> remember, and by focusing on texture, temperature and presentation." >> But some things remain elusive: she wants to smell ripe mangoes and >> searches for the aroma of earth after the rains. >> >> "Shachina is a thorough foodie. She is one of those people who can go >> to a restaurant all by themselves to enjoy a meal," says Sowmya >> Jaganmurthy, a friend who swears by Heggar's home-cooked biryani. >> Earlier this year, when Jaganmurthy was pregnant, Heggar helped >> satisfy her cravings. "The two of us have driven all the way to Mysore >> just to eat at a restaurant. That's how crazy she is about food," she >> says. >> >> The irony of a foodie without a nose is not lost on Heggar. An >> engineering dropout-turned-fashion designer, she came close to >> becoming a chef. "I was deciding between fashion and cooking school," >> she says. "Luckily, I chose right." Heggar retails her eponymous >> Indian-wear label at a few stores in the city, besides designing >> clothes for Kannada films. Her repertoire of 26 films includes Junglee >> (2009), Paramathma (2011), Charminar (2013) and Topiwala (2013). >> >> The last time she thought she could taste something, Heggar was trying >> exotic meats at a food street in Singapore. Each piece was beautiful, >> textured and hinted at delectable, if imaginary, flavours. "The idea >> of flavour is exciting to me," she says. When we meet two days after >> her return from the trip, she is ecstatic about another episode in >> Bali. "I was in a cab making my way to the hotel from the airport when >> this exotic smell hit me. I rolled down the windows, I thought I could >> actually smell again and even called some friends," she says. It was >> everything she wanted a holiday to smell like -sandalwood, spice and >> musk - but the next day, her nose drew a blank once again. >> >> Heggar's friends say she likes to travel, perhaps, in search of an >> impossible scent that even her nose would pick up. "She is a strong >> person. She is so used to living without her sense of smell that we >> often forget about her condition," says Dipanjay Sanyal, an ad >> filmmaker, who has known Heggar for eight years. According to Sanyal, >> Heggar makes a mean paella but can't tell if the leftovers in her >> fridge are rotten. "It is a health scare, and since I live alone, my >> friends come and make sure I don't eat anything that's gone bad. Just >> like they check the gas stove for leaks," Heggar says. >> >> Outside the realm of medicine, Heggar has tried every trick in the >> book in the hope of regaining the bits of the world now lost to her - >> aroma massage, looking at a pile of garbage, even repeatedly ordering >> her beloved strawberry margarita. A mention of the drink, probably the >> last she had before she lost her ability to smell, makes her smile. >> One day, last year, she woke up to its sweet aroma, and the feeling >> stayed with her for over two months, night and day. "I must have been >> the happiest person on the planet. I could only smell strawberry >> margarita for weeks," she says, wistfully. Yet, these sensory surges >> aren't under her control. They are involuntary, like the memories of >> childhood triggered in Marcel Proust when he had a fleeting taste of >> madeleines years later. >> >> Scientists have known for a long time that odours trigger emotional >> connections. Indeed, research suggests that smells can influence mood, >> memory, emotions, mate choice, and the immune and endocrine systems. >> "My friends joke that I will never get married because I can't smell >> the pheromones on the men I date," says Heggar. Pheromones are >> chemical signals that animals use to transmit messages to one another. >> Forget subtle signals, Heggar cannot smell her own shampoo. Living and >> non-living things release certain chemicals that upon entering the >> nose dissolve in the mucus inside. Beneath the mucus is a membrane >> containing olfactory receptor neurons that can detect thousands of >> odours. These receptors transmit information through the olfactory >> nerve to the olfactory bulb, which in humans is located in a rather >> inaccessible region at the back of the nose. The bulb, in turn, >> communicates signals to the brain. Thanks to this shortcut to the >> cortex, the sense of smell travels to the brain very fast compared >> with other senses. Heggar says she would like to have access to this >> primal cue some day. Dr T Sankarshana, a well-known ENT surgeon, says >> anosmia - the loss of smell - affects about 20-30 per cent of the >> patients he receives, but in most cases it is reversible. "Bangalore >> is the allergy capital of India. The reason for sudden loss of smell >> is often an obstruction in the olfactory region," he says. As for >> Shachina, she says she "would like to know my husband's smell when I >> do get married". And she hopes to get there with her nose held high. >> >> >> >> >> >> -- >> Avinash Shahi >> M.Phil Research Scholar >> Centre for The Study of Law and Governance >> Jawaharlal Nehru University >> New Delhi India >> >> Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility >> of >> mobile phones / Tabs on: >> http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessind ia.org.in >> >> >> Search for old postings at: >> http://www.mail-archive.com/accessindia@accessindia.org.in/ >> >> To unsubscribe send a message to >> accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in >> with the subject unsubscribe. >> >> To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, >> please >> visit the list home page at >> http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in >> >> >> Disclaimer: >> 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of >> the >> person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; >> >> 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the >> mails >> sent through this mailing list.. >> > > Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of > mobile phones / Tabs on: > http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessind ia.org.in > > > Search for old postings at: > http://www.mail-archive.com/accessindia@accessindia.org.in/ > > To unsubscribe send a message to > accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in > with the subject unsubscribe. > > To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please > visit the list home page at > http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in > > > Disclaimer: > 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the > person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; > > 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails > sent through this mailing list.. > -- Ajay Minocha Mob : +91-9584076767 E mail : ajayminoc...@gmail.com ajayminocha2...@rediffmail.com Skype: ajayminocha2 Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of mobile phones / Tabs on: http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessind ia.org.in Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/accessindia@accessindia.org.in/ To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in Disclaimer: 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent through this mailing list.. Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of mobile phones / Tabs on: http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessindia.org.in Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/accessindia@accessindia.org.in/ To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in Disclaimer: 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent through this mailing list..
