My Life, A Cocktail

Smell is a powerful thing. It can transport you across oceans, across time, decades behind. It was my usual Caltrain morning ride. I picked my single seat on top, set my bags and was just getting my laptop out, when this smell hit me. It was the smell of warm dosais coming from a perspiring lunch box. It took me back to the time when my mom would pack a similar lunch box for me. Warm soggy dosais with sugar to take to school. And the time my mom would pack a MTR Rava Idlis with milagai podi for my bus ride back to Mysore. And the time my mom would pack a whole box of Poruchu Kozhambu saadam to share with my friends at work. Whoever you are, eating those dosais right now, indulge.

As I walked through a little park in San Francisco on my way to work, a thought came floating with the wind. It whispered - your time is limited here… Instantly, my mind was more aware, taking in the surroundings and molding memories that would last. I looked up at the tall trees that swayed with the breeze, the birds that fluttered from one branch to another, the scarlet flowers that drooped with the dew trickling down the tender petals. My feet felt the paved cement trail and I let the mist engulf my face. If only I could live each day this way…