http://www.vogue.in/content/monica-ghurde-renowned-perfumer-passes-away/
Monica Ghurde, renowned perfumer, passes away Megha Mahindru | October 7, 2016 One of India’s leading olfactory experts, she was found murdered at her Goa home The news of the brutal murder of Monica Ghurde, a well-known perfumer and researcher, has the fashion world in mourning. Ghurde, whose body was found at her residence in Sangolda this morning, moved to Goa in 2011. A pioneer in her field, the 39-year-old perfumer was nicknamed the First Lady of Smell. Ghurde moved from Mumbai to Chennai in 2002, where she began to be intrigued by the jasmine flower. It was this obsession that made her swap careers—forfeiting photography for the sweet-scented world of perfumery. Later she refined her olfactory senses under a perfumer from Picot Laboratories, a renowned perfumery in UK. Over the years, Ghurde has conducted lectures on jasmine-based perfumes as well as workshops to educate people about the sense and influence of smell. A photographer-turned-stylist-turned perfumer, Ghurde’s association with Vogue India goes back a long way. In 2005, she collaborated with photographer Bharath Ramamrutham to launch Graf, a multi-disciplinary design house, and the photography graduate from JJ Institute of Applied Arts, captured portraits that have appeared in multiple issues of Vogue India in 2009. Off late, Ghurde has been our go-to nose for all the news on the Indian perfume world. In the September 2016 issue, she shared with Vogue India her field-to-bottle travel experiences—from Chennai to Lucknow to Paris and Milan—as she visited perfumer conferences and fragrance boutiques across the world. A serial collaborator, she has worked with designers such as Jean Francois Lesage, Christian Louboutin, Anand Kabra and Satya Paul, to name a few. As we mourn her loss today, we would love to remember the jasmine queen by her powerful words that will stay with us: “The power of smell can transport us back in time. People have memories attached to a particular smell.” Sweet, floral and intense, that’s the smell she will bring to mind. In this story: CHENNAI, CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN, GOA, MUMBAI, PARIS, PERFUME, PIONEER, QUEEN,SATYA PAUL