When the sun begins to set over Kannauj, a small town in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, the M.L. Ramnarain Perfumers distillery comes to life. Its stone courtyard is soon filled with the heady fragrance of jasmine as farm workers carry in sack after sack of the freshly plucked flowers.
Off this courtyard is a cavernous room lit only by a few dim light bulbs and the smoky fires that blaze under copper cauldrons filled with water. The men hunched over these pay me little heed as, which is then bottled and left to age for a few months.
