Smell Induced Memories

As I walked into a family restaurant, My nose got tickled all of a sudden By a familiar aroma that entered my nostrils. It transported me back to the years long past, When I was a child at my far away home In my mother’s kitchen on a Christmas day. The smell of chicken stew and *‘appam’ And the intoxicating taste of steaming tea, Raided my memory with deep nostalgia. The spicy aroma of her kitchen still haunts me And how I miss her culinary talents! Amid this smell, pops up her smiling face. When I catch such scent, how my mind runs to my mother. Though she is not with me now, what sweetness is there For those memories that tie me to my mother And wish those smells should never fade away. It gives me the feel that she is with me, so close. When the smell of Jasmine wafts through the air, It always brings memories of our first night, When I timorously entered my husband’s room, Carrying the delicate texture of a dream, Lending romance to the still night. His bewitching presence and endearing words, Filtered down into my mind, making me feel Both of us being lodged and lost in a fairy land. When we mingled and melded into one, In a spark emitting sensuous indulgence, Never thought we would be together all these years Drinking from the same cup, the bubbling wine And the bitter, acidic potion of pain, alike. Holding on to those honey dripping memories, I re-live those heavenly moments. Is it not strange that "memories buried in the wavering wash of time" are stirred, that lie ash laden when olfactory senses activate, the neurons of our brain from time to time! * Appam- a Kerala( Indian) delicacy.