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What do I smell?

Cilantro, Incense, Camphor, Shit, Spices, Sweat, Jasmine, Firewood?

All of the above?

Nostalgia?

A human nose is among many advanced technologies that a computer cannot replicate.

Everyone has one.  Not just the nose but a memory saved in their Hippocampus.  That is to say everyone has one of these campuses right inside of their brain and an amazing ability to retrieve the stored data when a certain trigger is pulled.

I had to visit Bombay (now Mumbai) on the western coast of India recently.  Described as a maximum city it is a constantly alive microcosm of a multi cultural, multi language, foodie heaven populated like no place on earth.

I grew up here and therefore have a distinct impressions of the terrain etched somewhere deep in the grey matter.

Landing here and starting to operate is a muscle memory that springs to life like a dormant seed bursting to do its thing in the parched California Death Valley with the onset of first rain.

Below are some snaps from a trip down memory lane and the smells, ditches, foods, transports, crowds and din of social proximity I encountered in a week in Mumbai.


Above scene of the coast as you come to land.  Airport is few miles inland on the Bombay peninsula that sticks into the Arabian sea.


Overcrowded trains where doors stay open in motion as people clamor to get on and off are part of maximum city's signature as are the smells that linger in specific streets... you can identify where you are with eyes closed..


Above, a rickshaw huddle like in American football ... both trying to get to the end zone at the same time.


Local transport is often in a 3 wheel rickshaw powered today by Compressed Nat Gas.  And also available (thank you Travis K) on demand at your lat long by using the UBER app.


Inter city transport can also be had by one of these motor coaches.. I had a chance to use it to go to a hill town of Pune.


Morning glory - worship is part of many a citizen's lexicon and marigold is the flower du jour.


Fresh cilantro being readied for sale on the street above.


A glass of fresh squeezed sugar cane is breakfast of champions


 Pav bhaji is hard to describe - best experienced in the mouth... the bread or Pav makes or breaks this deal


Sweet tooth?   Like hotel California, you will never leave.


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