The Sense of Smell and Sex

Sometime back I had read of a party in New York where the sense of smell dictated partners an dtheir choice. The nuts and bolts was something like this. in an exclusive gathering T Shirts of girl were put in a large open carton and the men were expected to pick up the T Shirt of girl and smell it and make a choice. The host would flash the biodata of the man on a large screen and in case the girl was happy with it, the matter would proceed forward and the two could meet and date. On my visit to Mumbai from Singapore I was pleasently surprised to recieve an invitation for a similar party at his private residense. I attended in my best attire with my blazer sporting my airforce emblem. I handed my bio to my host who announced the rollicking game to begin with a dash of whiskey doing the rounds. There were 15 girls and an equal number of men for this gala occassion.

I spent some time pondering what to do and soon decided to be part of the party. I went to the carton and picked up some T shirts and tried to smell teh aorma. franly I could not detect any odor that could appeal to me. I picked up a blue T Sirt and smelled it. It had a lot of perfume sprayed and it was of small size. Somehoe I liked the arma of teh shirt and signalled my assent. My bio was flashed on the makeship screen and in 30 seconds a girl rushed forward. I was pleasently surprised she was from Assam a state I love and have spent quite a few years there during my stint in the Air Force.

It was a rolicking party and I wonder whether smell has some effect on the sexual relationship between a man and a woman. Maybe there is something and this is one field of study that can be explored by social scientists.