It smells like a large basket of fruits gone bad. At least, to me. But among the hundreds of nicotine-laced flavours called e-juices on the shelves of one of Delhi’s first vaping shops, this one is the owner, Aalok Awasthi’s favourite. The smell, he says, is sweet-and-sour melon, and so is the experience of being a vape shop owner. Located in Greater Kailash II, South Delhi the shop sits nestled between a burger food stall and a gym equipment store.
Awasthi, once a computer engineer, used to smoke 20 cigarettes a day. But all that is in the past.