Nothing like a good ol’ flame

As luxury brands continue to invade India, it underscores what many of us growing up in more Spartan times rejected as the hogwash of the underprivileged: that the experiential can be at least as enjoyable without requiring you to break open the bank vault. Agreed, many of those experiences read like clichés, but it is equally true that no luxury can replace the pleasure of watching the sun rise over the mountains or sink into the sea as you gaze at the horizon with a glass of wine.

One of the most enjoyable things about winter in Delhi is the way people will take out candles and light them in their living spaces. It is a seasonal indulgence because at all other times of the year the overhead fans play spoilsport, so you cannot enjoy the luxury — and there’s almost nothing as hedonistic — of masses of candles in different sizes lit up to create a bonfire of conviviality. It might sound a bit treacly, but candles have the power of instantly transforming a space and the company in it.

Fortunately for us, we live in times when good quality candles are at least somewhat easily available. Someone I know imported Jo Malone candles from Europe in glass containers because we received a lot of them as gifts. Even now, it’s interesting that most candles at home have come as gifts — huge ones from Good Earth, a beautiful black-and-gold Goth one from the Villa Collection in Denmark, and others from stores such as Moon River or The Address. Behind these slightly snobbish ones are the locally picked candles from Limelight, though at one stage the candles we used were always from actor Dimple Kapadia’s The Faraway Tree. While I haven’t spotted them for a while in Delhi, I am informed that they are available in Twinkle Khanna’s The White Window store in Mumbai. 

Hostesses these days seem to prefer guests bringing them an expensive candle as a gift instead of wine. Mostly, candles get gifted around Diwali, but I find them fussy with their Swarovski or kundan-like embellishments and usually poor quality wax that just means someone’s been gypped of good money. Except at the height of summer, when it would be downright silly, candles make great gifts throughout the year. 

Increasingly, homes are lighting candles to set the mood. Having said that, there is the downside of the less evolved among the Homo sapiens who are likely to find candles sissy. If you feel like pouring hot wax down their back, resist the idea and remember — they’re not part of the candle cognoscenti.

For make no mistake, there is a growing band of the candle cognoscenti, and they’re as snobbish about their choice of candles as the average woman is about her Manolo Blahniks, or the man about his Hugo Boss. They’re likely to buy their candles overseas because there aren’t vendors in India who will guarantee supply of your choice or brand — and candle buyers swear by the quality of the frame, the wax and the perfume almost as much as others who put their money on Bvlgari baubles. In fact, the perfumers who work with candlemakers may be the ones who also work on your fav fragrances. 

While the flickering flame of a candle slowly bleeding wax that cools in interesting shapes or those that glow all the way down a hollow, has a mesmerising, even meditative effect, for many of us it comes closest to a bonfire in the house. There’s something a little melancholic about the flames of candles — and these days, candle snobs want definite aromas with their candles, which contribute to a calming or celebratory mood. It is for the fragrance — whether fresh with eucalyptus and pine (Jo Malone), or spicy (Labdanum), or rich with musk and mint (Odin) — that candle veterans prefer to buy their stock from stores in London or Paris at cringeworthy prices upwards of ₹4,000 and going on to ₹20,000 each. Multiply that several times over for masses of candles and you can literally watch a fortune burn away. Yet, because candles are re-usable and last sometimes longer than a season, the value might turn out to be more than just perfume, which, in any case, is likely be a selfish indulgence when compared with the community camaraderie that the glow of candles radiates.

The author is a Delhi-based writer and curator