Khushboo

Ah...it was the all too familiar smell; It was after months that I was in proximity of this all too familiar loving smell...

I could no longer resist myself. I moved closer, and more closer and then literally dived in; digged into the deepest of recesses, and finally came up with something -
a Haldi powder packet, and a packet of Lijjat Papad.

It was about a month of having landed in Japan, that I had managed to find out an Indian store - a kirana ka dukaan, with all too familiar sights - like the posters of Dalda Ghee, of the smiling Lijjat Papad mascot, and of course the all too familiar smell.

They say,

You can take a man out of India, but you cant take India out of a man

This was one of the first times, that I really understood this saying.

Then, there was another occasion when I experienced something similar;

It was a cloudy Saturday morning, and it had just about started drizzling; I rushed to the balcony of my apartment, not to see the raindrops falling; but to smell the sweet smell of first wettening of the soil. Again, I was disappointed.

Where can you smell the मिट्टी की ख़ूशबू (Smell of the Land) - but only in your homeland.