writeALONG! 3 May

A TUESDAY FEATURE

host: Muskaan Ahuja

HAIKAI WRITING TOOLS : Smell and Breath

"The visit to Varanasi is incomplete if you do not visit Dashaswamedh Ghat for the daily evening aarti. What a sight! The aarti that started at 7 pm lasted for 45 breathtaking minutes.A serene silence prevailed over the ghat as people returned to their homes. I carried the smell of incense as I started walking towards the auto stand half a kilometer away. The road outside Dashaswamedh was peppered with shops, vendors selling fragrant items. I walked past a florist, breathing in the marigold and rose petals; crossed a thandai shop inhaling the sweet smell of cold milk served with almonds and saffron; passed by a samosa shop tempting me with the scent of the mashed potato those hot samosas concealed within; halted at a fruit cart to buy oranges, fresh, neither hot nor cold. I looked back at these shops, the different items they sold, the distinct smell each of them held within and emanated."

It is all about the smell. Have you ever observed your breath while walking, travelling or writing? How about writing about smells that left a fragrant trail in your mind...The smell of naphthalene balls on sweaters, the smell of rains, the smell of a letter someone wrote to you or the smell of a new book at your place?

Today, I urge you to concentrate on the very foundation of life --- the breath!

Go back into your memory garden and write about good smell or bad smell.