New Delhi, Feb. 15 -- My reunion with her was recent.

I was working at my desk recently when I suddenly got her sweet, lingering scent from the garden outside, wafting in on a spring breeze. When I looked up, there was no sign of her. I saw the occasional iridescent flash of a dark, little sunbird. Perhaps it was a purple-rumped sunbird, although I am no expert. Bees swarmed the butterfly bush outside, the mango tree beyond was bursting with yellow-green panicles, and the raintree beside it was covered with green seed pods.

Spring was in the air-the sunbirds and bees were busy going about their job of pollinating and renewing life. It had been more than a decade since my last whiff of rosemary, on the other side of the world on the hill...