What the nose knows not

Losing my sense of smell makes me appreciate how essential it was

- Amulya.Gopalakrishnan

I have no smell,” I complained to a friend. “Oh, but you do,” he said, scrunching his nose. But it’s no joke to me.

In early May, I knew I had Covid when the chemical fragrance of the handsoap failed to pierce through. There was just a strange void where the smell used to be. I’d never had my nose so completely switched off, even through the worst colds.

Five months on, something of my lost sense has returned. At least I can tell when there’s a strong something in the air — garbage, drain or loo, or a heavy deodorant or coffee — but it’s all the same indistinguishable, smoky odour.

Now I know how essential it is, this taken for granted faculty. All of you with intact olfactory bulbs, please appreciate what you have. It is the sense of smell that accompanies you, orients you, gives fullness to so many experiences.

While other animals pick up sophisticated information with their feelers and orifices and trunks, humans repeatedly fail to notice what’s in front of our faces. We have repressed this sense so effectively, we lack the language to say what we’re missing.