Sixteen Things

Sixteen random things about me - though, I am not sure if anything can really be totally random -there has to be some order to everything, right?

1. Growing up, I wanted to be a scientist of some kind – graduated in Physics, but shifted fields after a year of Masters.

2. In high school, I actually wrote and directed a play that was staged in the most prestigious auditorium in Calcutta – unfortunately, I never thought to preserve the script, and have even forgotten the story now.

3. There was a time when I could effortlessly rattle off sports statistics – today, I am not even sure who is the captain of the Indian cricket team.

4. I never thought I would be able to accept my first child if it was not a girl. By the time the second one came around, I preferred the idea of having two boys to having a girl and a boy.

5. When I see a cockroach or a lizard, I either ignore them or flick them out of the way, and I find it quite hilarious to meet people who seem scared of those harmless creatures.

6. My current hairstyle is exactly the same one I had when I was ten years old – wonder what that says about my style quotient?

7. I absolutely love knitting and crochet – wish the weather in Bombay were more conducive to wool-craft.

8. I was foolish enough to travel to Brazil without knowing a word of the language or possessing an English-Portuguese dictionary – don’t get me started on how I struggled to get a glass of water at a restaurant.

9. The only exams I have ever flunked (and yes, I have flunked exams) have been the Hindi language ones – strangely, the first language I learnt was Hindi.

10. I had a massive crush on Stefan Edberg, the tennis player –does anyone even remember him now?

11. I got my driving license the year I turned thirty, and learnt to drive five years later.

12. One of the questions I hate answering is, “Which part of India are you from?” Do they want to know where my ancestors have squatted ever since they came down from the trees, or do they want to know where I was born, or where I spent my childhood, or where I grew up, or….. I am an Indian – period.

13. By the time I was three years old, I spoke three languages reasonably fluently.

14. I took my first swimming lessons less than a year ago, and love the pool now. Who says you are ever too old to acquire new skills?

15. The pair of jeans I bought for myself when I started working more than a dozen years back still fit me quite comfortably – let us not talk about all those intervening years when I struggled to even push my legs into them.

16. Among other things, I want to run a full marathon some day- that is probably the only one of my dreams that is ever likely to come true.