The hint of a smell.

Have you ever travelled down the memory lane just by the hint of a smell. The smell of tadka and fresh made rotis take me back home. And it is hard not to remember my mom. How she struggled to teach me cooking. Constantly nagging me to get the perfect round roti. When I used to carry my books in kitchen, read aloud my lessons and make rotis in 11th std. And ending up making maps of non-existent countries. I still do curse my brothers for making fun of my rotis and never appreciating it when now I am a roti pro.

I must be too much of a foodie cause the next smell etched in my memory is that of my moms cake. I went to this random bakery shop, and it had its oven just backdoor, and there was this strong mixed fragrance of vanilla, baked floor, cinnamons, sweet hot vapours coming out of that door. The bakery still comes alive in front of my eyes, and I did compliment the owner that you have floored me long before buying anything, how he smiled generously and talked very warmly to me. That bakery shop transported me to our house where I was handyman of my mom when baking cakes. cleaning, clearing clutter, cutting things, at beck and call. Me and my family used to poke our noses 10 times in the oven to check if the cake is done or not. And the house was filled with warmth and sweet smelling spices.

The smell of wet grass, decaying leaves reminds me of my university days, when we went hunting for boundaries of our 2400 acres of university. Some wild spirit we had.

The smell of dry grass reminds me of hot summer. Scortching heat of southern India.

The distant smell of cold fresh breeze brings back memories of the cloudy skies, that soon transform there colors to darker shades of grey and then you see rain descending down. The rain lashes the earth and a hot puff of steam from the ground hits your senses. Soon you are surrounded by the earthen smell, the cloudy skies, the cold rain water. And it reminds of some long forgotten hard to recollect memory that leaves you sighing.

And my romance with smells continues, wanting for more.