The Smile Sense

It was when rearranging JK's much cherished documents cupboard, I discovered my autograph books (dated 1998, 2000, 2004). I never knew that I had brought all these to Qatar and that JK had gifted it with a cute velvet pouch!

Night is still young, confirming my decision for a time-travel. I flipped through the pages, smiled, laughed, cried, crooned, and brooded. By the time I finished, nostalgia gripped me with its firm tentacles and threw me deep into the memories.

I emerged, refreshed, happy and smiling. Smiling! Reminds me of the keyword highly penned down in my books. 'Girl with a smiling face', 'smiling girl', 'smiling friend', 'smile like this forever', 'may this smile be with you always', 'keep smiling, 'love to see you smiling'??!?!?!!!

One of them even wrote – "Once I saw you crying, but even when you were crying you were smiling!"(??!!) What? Do I smile that much?

I keep getting this compliment even now, leaving me wondering what makes me smile. It is not a deliberate attempt, as far as I know.

Unknowingly, I give it a smile finish.

"You don’t have anything to worry about, and that is what keeps you happy", once commented a classmate of mine. No worries??? For me???? I have gone through such phases in life which left me wondering what keeps me alive. There were times I was lying pathetic with the hard-effects of depression. There were times I wish sailing away to some unknown shore. There were times I wished that someone take me to the Bermuda Triangle!!!!

Just like the Bermuda, the reason behind my smile is still a mystery to me.

The Smell Sense

Walking down the aisle at the hypermarket, I was suddenly thrown into my KG class – the St Paul's School in Coimbatore. I can hear the school assembly, I can hear 'Aunty Miss' shouting at the kids, I can see girls in navy pinafore strutting the verandah, and yeah I can smell 'Mallipoo' aka Jasmine!

The mind has a strange tendency to attach smell to certain occasions in my life.

Smell of 'One Man Show' reminds me of Bawa, 'Amritanjan' reminds me of mummy, smell of spices and tea in the evening time reminds me of Ramadan days in Kochi, gram flour reminds of sissy, medicinal spirit reminds me of Kumaran Hospital in Coimbatore, and vicks lozenge reminds of bro! Every smell comes with a story. May be it is because that is the occasion I first smelled the fragrance.

What irks me is the tag my smell sense has attached with JK – the smell of stale Jackfruit!