Sighs, childhood smells, etc.

You know what is the second best fragrance on Earth? That of coffee blooms, I say.

That, is a very subjective and very personal opinion of course - my childhood was full of these smells. Of coffee and pepper and paddy and ginger and many other farm products.

Been to the good old Wayanad over the weekend. Had to walk a few kilometers on a very early Saturday morning, to my uncle's place. I wouldn't complain a bit - I had this fragrance for company :-)

Seen Kurosawa's Village of the Watermills, from Dreams? This journey was that, kind of. There are serious differences of course.

Sadly, everything is not remaining unchanged and nice and peaceful there. The fragile environment is fast deteriorating, and the erstwhile agrarian economic empire that was Wayanad is in a huge crisis today. P Sainath has done a number of features on the agrarian crisis in Wayanad, for The Hindu.

Yes, it hurts very badly. And I do feel guilt for not doing a thing about that. But I have already started forgetting, no problem.

So been there, walked around a lot, and met many people: my teacher, many friends, and relatives. Then returned with a hurting, blistered crotch. Underwears were a bit rough it seems :-/