Aroma

Photo by Christin Hume on Unsplash

Aroma – Also known as odor is a property sensed by our olfactory system. As our nose and nasal cavity senses airborne chemicals, our brain transmits them into the perception of smell.

A young boy with a jolly but a little bit timid nature, who would easily get threatened by his peers, becomes a rebel as time goes by. Soon he moves out of his colony to a better place due to his father occupying a house. There he finds himself amongst the rich kids who are impressed by his cricketing skills. As time passes by, he engraves himself into studies and as his efforts and luck warranted, cracks JEE.

His life changes and he moves to a foreign land. But, the ghost of his past which he got from his peers haunts him and the cultural shock gets him big. One evening in a bus ride full of people, a girl wishes to approach him and he gets intimidated by the unexpected entry into his space. Soon gets a weird aroma which he couldn’t explain but just sits there quietly without making any fuss.

As time goes by he forgets about it, but then some years later he again gets a foul smell and this time in his room, without anyone’s presence there. This makes him believe that this is some sort of godly intervention to teach him right from wrong. But there are times when he smells fragrance too. The type of smell he perceives is triggered even by his thinking about anything controversial from a local or a global perspective.

Soon he realises that it’s an attempt from the god to purify his thinking. His life revolves around making his decisions right based on either the foul smell or the fragrance that his brain perceives. He also believes that if he could permanently get fragrance then that justifies his prowess in this life’s battlefield.

In the beginning, the aura of this aroma is limited to his nose only but as time goes by the aura increases and his near/dear ones also start perceiving foul smell in his vicinity. But the number of times he gets a foul smell is much higher than the times he perceives fragrance. He also realizes that attaining godly power is not an easy task, unless and until there is clarity in the god’s olfactory process.

He calls it “The Nose Politics” but doesn’t discuss it with anyone due to the fear of people calling him a depressed individual. He quietly tries to understand the god’s action, who has his own ways of dealing with his life.

He keeps shouting, “My life is not in my hands but I will seal my own fate.”

There is no distinction as to where the smell will hit him, in his home, car, or outside. But usually, outside occurrences are less since his attaining this power, he limited movements outside.

A couple of years later, something new happens. This first happened when he was having lunch with his lab mates. Somehow the taste of other’s food he perceived as a smell in his mouth and nose. Mostly, he felt the aroma of food from his juniors or someone who secretly had a liking for him or favored him.  

Later, he started perceiving the aroma even before the food had been consumed by the individuals. Not realizing the potential of this power, he kept on visiting different restaurants to feel the aroma of their food. But he couldn’t figure out any way to make a living out of it.

Inspite of these unexplainable interceptions in his life, he tries to lead a normal life. Due to his work one day he again visits a foreign land. As usual, his day goes by and in the afternoon he is invited for lunch with the foreign dignitaries. As they all prepare to have food, he feels the aroma in his mouth and nose. This time he immediately warns everyone in the room that there is something unpalatable in his dish and that it should be checked.

People don’t believe him but he keeps on insisting without disclosing his abilities, and soon they find that the food had been poisoned.

The hero who saved the lives of foreign dignitaries gets awarded with a hefty sum of money changing his life forever.

However rich he became the aroma didn’t leave him but kept teaching life lessons which helped him correct his actions in the longer run.