Excuse me, but do I smell?

When I first went to live in London, I thought that people there were obsessed with body odours. Their own as well as other people's. Deodorant ads depicted ultra smooth, baby-soft underarms of a woman holding on to the overhead rail on the tube and some short guy next to her sniffing up to the dewy, dovey freshness with a dopey grin on his face. Oh yeah. Made all the difference to his otherwise mind-numbing daily commute. Okay well, may be the picture is a bit exaggerated. But the tube really is one place is London where you don't want to smell bad.

Try explaining this to someone who grew up in Karachi and traveled on the rattling-tin-box excuses of buses in the hot, humid climate with no air-conditioning and no limit on the number of passesngers that could be crammed in. The smell of sweat used to be so pervasive that after awhile you just kind of stopped noticing it. In the small women' s section at the front, the sour, yoghurty odours of cleaning women mixed with the timid-to-offensive bodily smells of housewives, students and old women. And mine, obviously.

Deodorant was either unheard of or too expensive. If you were lucky, you just had a shower everyday and the rest was all up to nature.It wasn't your fault that you lived in a hot country. Sometimes, you tried to do something about it by wearing the treasured perfume some aunt or uncle brought you from the States for your 16th birthday. But considering as it never went anywhere near your armpits, just as it wasn't mean to, it didn't really work. And frankly, nobody cared, unless you smelt like you hadn't seen a shower in a few days or you had put the same sweaty clothes on AFTER a shower. Now that was criminal, at least in my eyes.

Five years in the UK and my definition of criminal changed considerably. On trips back to Pakistan, I took armfuls of Dove sprays with me and urged cousins and friends to wear deodorant regularly. A right little miss smug I was, turning my nose up at smelly taxiwalas and passrsby in the bazaars. Uncivilized heathens, I thought. My attitude lasted until, some time ago, I happened to take a closer look at the ingredients of my deodorant spray and googled them a bit.

I learnt about aluminium chlorohydrate, present in most deo sprays. It can give me Cancer, even Alzheimer's. And there I was - spray happy- literally depositing the toxic aluminium into my breasts at least once everyday.Since then the quest has been on for non-cancer-giving, organic, natural deodorant that actually works.

The ones I have tried so far...

Aromarant from LUSH (City Centre, Dubai)

Nice lemony bar wrapped in paper. Contains lovely things like witchhazel and sandalwood essential oil. Leaves a subtle, soft fragrance and keeps my skin soft. But no, it doesn't keep the odours away a 100%.

Lafes Organic Deodrant

Bought from Organic Foods and Cafe. Has aleo vera and mineral salts to neutralize odours. When I first wore it a few days ago, I had to wait for a taxi in the 40 something heat. I kept wanting to sniff at my armpits, to see if it was working.When I finally got into a taxi, I was even tempted to ask the driver if I smelt. I didn't really but ~I didnt smell fresh and dewy either.

The verdict on organic deos? People, if I ever happen to wave my arms about anywhere near you and despite all my efforts, the teeniest hint of BO wafts over to your sensitive noses, get used to it. I'd much rather smell a bit than get cancer.

Minibus Photo courtesy http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/in_pictures/6657535.stm