The first monsoon rain has just come to Delhi. Wet mud smells sweet, samosas sizzle on every corner, jalebis glow golden in hot oil, and kids on balconies are shouting for pakoras. It smells amazing outside.
Then, right at noon, everything goes wrong.
Dogsy is in the kitchen. His mother is cooking his favourite carrot halwa, but— "Mom, why can't I smell the ghee and cardamom?" Dogsy asks, sniffing hard. Nothing. Not one whiff.
His mother sniffs too. "Odd. I can't smell it either. Maybe my nose is blocked."
Just then Napu bangs on the window, completely out of breath. "Dogsy! Come outside! Jasmine flowers, golgappa water, everything — there's no smell anywhere in Delhi! It's like someone stole every scent in the city!"
Outside, it's chaos. Spice sellers stand beside open bags of chilli powder — nobody sneezing. Perfume shops spray their best bottles into the air — nothing happens. The whole city smells of absolutely nothing. Spooky, right?
Dogsy runs to the park, where his dog friend Sheru sits whimpering, rubbing his nose against the grass. For a dog, smell is everything — and his has vanished completely.
"Sheru, buddy, what happened last night?" Dogsy asks, in dog language.
Sheru barks sadly. "There was thick fog, and I saw a glowing purple cloak floating through the sky. A girl, holding a giant golden bottle. She waved her wand, and — whoosh — all of Delhi's smells swirled up into that bottle like colourful smoke. Then my nose just... stopped working. I couldn't see her face, but she dropped a gold coin near the neem tree."
Napu picks up the coin. On it: a bottle with a nose, crossed out in red. His face goes pale. "Oh no, Dogsy. This is the mark of Bantini — the most famous, sneakiest thief in the magic world. She steals people's senses — sight, hearing, taste, smell — locks them away in bottles, and sells them for a fortune on the magic black market."
"So... where is she?" Dogsy asks.
Napu calls for Kaliya, a wise old cobra who knows every hiding spot in Delhi. Kaliya whispers, "She's hiding behind the oldest tomb in Lodhi Garden — an invisible glass castle, guarded by spinning wind tornadoes. Careful, or you'll get blown away like a kite."
On the way, they pass the garden's old lily lake. Napu — Snake Man, and friend to every creature that lives in water — kneels at the edge and gives a soft, gurgling call. A grumpy old catfish pokes his whiskers out of the murky water.
"You lot again," the catfish grumbles. "Fine. Saw her last night — that thief flew right over this lake. Dropped a shiny thread from her cloak. It's tangled in the lotus roots, near the third pillar. Might help you sneak in quiet-like."
Napu fishes out the shimmering thread. It turns invisible in his hand for a second, then reappears. "A cloaking thread! This thing is elusive — meaning it's almost impossible to catch or hold onto — but it'll help us slip past the tornadoes completely unseen."
Wrapping the thread around themselves, Dogsy and Napu tiptoe straight through the spinning winds without a single hair moving. They slip into the glass castle through an open window.
Inside: floating bottles glowing every colour, and on a velvet throne — Bantini herself, holding the golden bottle full of swirling, rainbow-coloured Delhi smells.
"That's enough, Bantini!" Napu shouts. "Hand it over!"
Bantini spins around, eyes glinting. "Hahaha! Too late, little heroes. This essence is mine to sell now." Essence just means the true smell of something, the part that makes it exactly what it is, all captured and bottled up. "Annoy me further, and I'll steal your voices too!" She swings her wand. "Darkness magic — steal their sound!"
But Napu blows a whistle, and a squad of flying snakes zooms in through the window, shielding them both. Bantini's spell misses completely. At the same moment, Sheru — who'd snuck in below the window — leaps up and snaps at her hand. The golden bottle flies into the air.
Napu dives and catches it just before it smashes against the glass floor. The snakes snatch Bantini's wand away a second later. Powerless, she slumps down in a huff.
The magic police arrive with sparkly handcuffs and arrest her on the spot. "Well done, you two," the inspector says, tipping his hat.
Outside, Dogsy carefully opens the bottle. A beautiful rainbow-coloured breeze swirls out and rushes across the whole city. Kitchens fill with halwa smells again. Gardens smell of jasmine. Sheru takes one giant sniff and howls with joy, tail wagging like crazy.
Delhi smells wonderful again — and everyone agrees, even the grumpy catfish back at the lake, that it's been a very good day.
Back at the lake, the grumpy catfish catches one whiff of the spice stall and sneezes a bubble onto Napu's nose. "Too much smell," he complains.