Page 81 - Travel + Leisure India & South Asia (January 2020)

At her Paris atelier, shelves and surfaces are he said, jasmine bud prices soar from `35 a
packed with dozens of glass bottles, each pound to about `2,480.
bearing the name of a different ingredient. One At the market, Nandan bought strings of
of her best-selling perfumes, Aphtoori Absolute, jasmine, ylang-ylangs, marjorams, tulsis, roses,
is what’s known in the industry as an oriental and lotuses. That afternoon, as we headed out of
scent—a warm, sensual blend of musk, yyerba town to see raw fragrance being made at an
maté, and, of course, jasmine. “Different extraction plant, Nandan kept inhaling the
perfumers are gifted in different ways,” she told perfume of the garlands, which lay in her lap in a

me. “I have an affinity for flowers. I’m good at kaleidoscopic tangle. “I am trying to imprint their Plan a Trip
playing with them.” scent components into my memory, and thinking
After almost two hours in the jasmine fields, about how to recreate them,” she explained. to Madurai

Nandan headed back to Madurai. The sun was Nandan buys jasmine extract for her fragrances GETTING

high by the time we reached the flower market in from a supplier named Raja Palaniswamy, who also THERE
Mattuthavani, in the northeastern corner of town. sells to international fragrance brands like Air India (airindia.
Depending on the season, the stalls lining this Guerlain, Dior, and Chanel. When we arrived at com) flies into
bazaar receive between 13 and 27 tonnes of Palaniswamy’s factory, about an hour north of Madurai from cities
like New Delhi
jasmine each morning. Buds picked before dawn Madurai, we found 1,500 pounds of jasmine buds and Mumbai. For

are vacuum-packed and sent off to New Delhi, spread out on the floor. “An entire field of jasmine a longer itinerary

Europe, and the US, where Indian-Americans and will go into just one bottle of perfume,” Nandan in Tamil Nadu,
expats decorate their Bollywood-style weddings said. Palaniswamy nodded: 750 pounds of flowers Chennai is the

with strings of jasmine. Mid-morning buds go to produce a single pound of concentrated extract. best entry point.
city temples, political rallies, and flower vendors, “We have to wait for them to bloom before STAY

who fan out across Madurai selling garlands for loading them into the extractors,” Palaniswamy The Gateway Hotel
women to string through their hair. An 18-inch warned. “Otherwise the scent won’t be fully Pasumalai Madurai
string costs about `71—roughly the same as a developed.” An hour later, the buds opened. (gateway.tajhotels.
spritz of Tom Ford’s Jasmin Rouge. Four men poured them into a giant cylindrical com; doubles from
Heading inside, Nandan and I found men and container, into which a solvent would be added. `7,080) is set on the
top of Pasumalai, a
women with sackfuls of jasmine buds jostling A tropical breeze lifted the scent—borne of a forested hill in the
around a row of stalls. In each sat a trader, flower’s sacrifice—to the moon rising outside southwest of the

buying bags of flowers, calling out prices, and the factory’s open door. city. Explore the

selling to other buyers—all at lightning speed. “A Sufi saint was once asked what forgiveness property’s 63-acre

One of the biggest vendors, S Rajendiran, told us is,” Nandan said. “He replied, ‘It is the scent the garden—complete
with peacocks—and

that prices can fluctuate wildly. On festival days, flower gives out when it is crushed.’ ” enjoy views of the
city from Vista, the
patio café.
A seller makes TOUR
jasmine garlands Meenakshi Amman
outside a temple. temple (madurai
meenakshi.org)
hosts a nightly
ceremony in which
Shiva’s reunion
with Meenakshi
is enacted. Local
guides can lead
a walking tour
through the flower
market in the
city’s Mattuthavani
district. You can also
see raw fragrance
being made at Raja
MARIA HEYENS/ALAMY facility, Jasmine
Palaniswamy’s
Concrete Exports
(jasmineindia.com),
an hour outside
the city.

TR AV E L A NDLE I S U R E IND I A .IN 77