Intentionally or accidentally, do you wear a particular fragrance for a specific place or person?
I like to stick to one perfume when on a holiday so when I pick it up in the months and years afterwards it brings back memories in a strangely automatic way.
But nothing is the same as the unknown or forgotten perfume of another person, or the specific blend of scents that make up the air of a particular corner of a particular city. (The pollution-laden scent of Kathmandu Airport excites the child in me thanks to a few formative years in the city a lifetime ago.)
Isn’t the magic of the past the fact that we can never relive it, but can still grasp onto the hope that occasionally something will remind us of it for a fleeting moment?
Maybe I should stop trying so hard to force scent memories.
