smell

I am damn busy and for once I am enjoying every bit of it. Even the late hours. Finished one website. It looks shoddy but the client liked it. Finished 'Smell' after much struggle. Sometimes the book cradled my face and sometimes I had it in my arms and slept. Radhika Jha has made a very stunning debut. The power of the book is the power of smell.
First published in Viking by penguin books India, 1999.
I quote some lines here:
‘You see after you leave, your smell keeps me company, almost as if you were still there. It comforts me but it begins to fade after a few days and I run through the house searching for a little whiff of you like an addict.’

‘Philosophy is what losers use to pretend that losing doesn’t matter’

‘Memories are seeds that sprout into huge trees overnight, blocking your view of the future.’

‘ I want to find a way to hurt him. ‘I can’t remember’, I say. ‘What do you mean you can’t remember?’ ‘You have no special smell.’you are like everyone else. I made it all up, every last bit of it’. He looks at me as if he has never seen me before. ‘You are lying, aren’t you?’ ‘No, I am not’. ‘You can’t do that it is not possible’ ‘It is. I did.’

‘He hits my face with his fist now, once, twice, three times. My head swings left and right from the force of his blows. He is going to kill me, I think drilly, wondering when my neck will snap, hoping it will happen quickly. Suddenly he stops he burries his face in mine and starts to cry…’

‘That’s when it hit me – a dark feral smell too strong to be civilised, too powerful to be hidden. A smell so shameless, it belonged to the night or those private moments of solitude that cannot be shared. I was surprised to find it here, in public’

umm, do I smell a victory as India takes on Bangladesh in the Asia Cup? such entertainers that they are, they have the ability to make the climax very interesting be it with Pak, Australia or even Bangladesh. you never know. So, I keep my fingers crossed for the Indian team.