Remember the smell of your elementary school cafeteria or the perfume of your first crush? That feeling — where a certain smell instantly takes you back — doesn't happen for Pradhan. And she's afraid it means parts of the past are missing.

"When I ask my sister about this, and she and I are not very far apart in age, she remembers people and places and things we've done more vividly than I do," Pradhan says.

— Nisha Pradhan is anosmic. Read more (or listen to the audio) at With No Sense Of Smell, The World Can Be A Grayer, Scarier Place at NPR.