Mitti Ki Khushboo...

It's started raining ... finally some reprieve from the sun! Nothing beats the smell of earth,the sight of raindrops falling from your roof to kiss earth, a hot cuppa coffee and the arms of your beloved(For me, its everything except the last clause, a good book would do wonders for me!). According to me, the one thing I would always associate with rains would be the sweet-damp fragrance of earth when it first pours... It beats even the best of perfumes from Christian Dior! So natural, so replenishing, so cathartic, so nostalgic.....

Last year, due to my now renowned US trip, I missed the first rains(I came by the time Mumbai was gearing up to get flooded again!). I truly missed everything aforementioned. While my stay in US one of the first few songs to find their way into my iPod was "Yeh jo des hain tera" from Swades... a heart wrenching song from an equally poignant movie. Each and every line of this song means its worth .... and one can feel it only when that person is away from India(like I was!). The line that actually makes you sit up and take notice is "Mitti ki hain jo khushboo, tu kaise bhulayega". Its so very true. It rained a couple of times when I was in US but the earth never exuded the fragrance we've grown up devouring. I never realised this until I shed a few tears listening to the song! Maybe that's why I connect to this song in a way which most of you cannot.

Coming from a Microbiology dept., I decided to Google out why does earth smell during rains and I found out that Actinomycetes(a type of bacteria growing in soil,omnipresent in all soils... I'm assuming my audience has read enough to know what bacteria are!!) release Geomycin, a pigment which is water soluble on contact with water(rain) which later gives out the fragrance. Science, in it place and emotions in its, someone pray tell me how come US Actinomycetes aren't potent enough to release geomycin(they're supposed to) and the fragrance...??? And yeah, this question is asked by a Science student, not a patriotic Indian!!