Fragrance before a Union Minister’s visit

CHENNAI: How often do you think of fragrance when someone mentions a railway station? The easy answer should be a big NO. But, hold your horses. There are a few rare exceptions too.

Chennai Egmore railway station, which usually reeks of unbearable odours, was giving off fragrance on a busy evening last week. And it was not because of some sea shift in railway hygiene policy, but the scheduled visit of union railway minister Ashvini Vaishnaw.

Be it the foot-over-bridge or heritage entrance, wherever the media went to cover the minister’s visit, aromatic fragrances wafted through the air. A few perplexed reporters, who were exhausted by the hour-long wait for the minister’s arrival, kept guessing the fragrance.

It donned on them a few minutes into the minister’s inspection when they heard a hissing sound at one of the pit-stops in the station. A junior railway employee was being generous with the room spray all along.

Indeed, the generous use of room spray had impressed the crowd accompanying the minister, especially the anxious railway officers. However, it did not fail to excite a few inquisitive scribes who wondered if the fragrance was a luxury reserved only for ministers on rare occasions and not for regular passengers.

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