The fragrance of Ramzan

The image of Mohammed Ali Road during Ramzan has become synonymous with iftar offerings — meats and sweets, mountains of dates and dry fruits. There is however a side to Mohammed Ali Road that is equally popular, a more fragrant side. The area is one of the biggest attar (perfume oil) markets in India and during Ramzan sees a steep rise in sales.

“This is one month during which the maximum number of people go to the mosque to offer prayers. Many of them apply attar to keep the shrines from smelling of body odour. During this period we do two to three times the business done in the rest of the year,” says Ismail Attarwala of Nemat Fragrances and Essential Oils at Mohammed Ali Road. His family started this business over 150 years ago in Udaipur and brought it to Mumbai in 1940.

Attarwala is among the few who keeps only natural attar. He has a rose cultivation farm in Haldighati in Udaipur and not only sells fragrances but also blends them. “Natural attar is extremely expensive, but people still buy it. The western world uses fragrances mainly to attract people of the opposite sex, in our culture it also has spiritual significance. People buy attar from us even during Diwali, Navratri and other religious occasions,” he says.

Certain natural attars that used to cost around Rs10,000 for 10 grams have been banned to prevent poaching of endangered species that lent ingredients to these fragrances. According to traders, traditional fragrances, such as Gulab, Majmua, Firdaus, Kewra are the best selling. But in past few years Oud, which has a woody fragrance, is also doing very well.

Nivedita Assar is the vice president of Fragrances and Flavours Association of India (FAFAI), a private association established in 1949 with 750 members across the country, She says, “Mohammed Ali Road and Princess Street in Mumbai, Tilak Street in Delhi and Ezra Street in Kolkata are the biggest attar markets in India, and sale of attar is highest during Ramzan.”

Hozefa Godhrawala of Hamidi Oud and Perfumes, a Dubai brand that has a store in Mohammed Ali Road, explains the reason. “Alcohol is prohibited in Islam and all perfumes have some percentage of it. That’s why Muslims in general prefer attars to perfumes, especially during Ramzan. 80% of our stock is attar and only 20% is perfumes.” Hamidi Oud and Perfumes, keeps both synthetic and natural attars in the price-range of Rs600 to Rs4,000 for 10ml bottles.

Small shops and attar stalls on Mohammed Ali Road, especially ones around the mosques, give people an option of applying attar without purchasing bottles.

They make a faya (a long metallic stick covered with cotton that looks like a ear bud), dip it in attar and apply it to customers. The used cotton is thrown and a new one is taken for each new customer.

“It is good smell good when you’re going for namaz. We apply attar with the faya on people’s ears if they don’t want to buy an entire bottle. The distance between the ear and nose is less, so the person will keep  getting the smell, and also people who passes them or pray besides them. Some people also apply it to their beard, lower portion of the hair and forehead,” says Ahmed Ali who works for a small street shop on the Mohammed Ali Road. He charges Rs5 for regular attar and Rs10 for a slightly better variant. His customers are largely impulse buyers.

Ali, who is from a small village in UP, says the use of attar before going to mosques has urban roots. “Attar is something that people buy over and above basic necessities like food. Villagers will think twice before spending on it. But unlike villages, not everyone in the city has good access to water — sometimes slum dwellers don’t get to bathe for days at a stretch. This is also one of the reasons it sells so well in cities.”