Awarded!!

Usha has been kind enough to bestow the kreativ blogger award to me. I am overwhelmed Usha. My rants and rambling monologues are considered kreativ?? Should they be? Well, I suppose so since it is Usha who is saying it. Thank you Usha for the award.

Now the difficult part of sharing seven little known facts about me……….

Difficult because my blog is more of an autobiography and I’ve already shared much of what I feel or do in my posts. So I have to come out with seven secrets that were till now safely stored in my mind.

As a child I loved reading books and it did not matter whether I begged, borrowed or stole them. I remember borrowing a book from a lending library close to a friend’s house and misplacing it. The man charged an anna per day for it and my bill was literally increasing by the day. The friend would pester me in school and I’d promise to get it the next day. I’d conveniently ‘forget’ to get the book the following day. This went on for a week and the friend’s mother landed at our place since the librarian had approached her. My mother had actually put it away while cleaning the house so she returned the book and paid the money. In our days this was a very serious offence and I was properly admonished for borrowing the book without her permission and not telling her about it right away. These days children easily ask for huge amounts as spending money and parents don’t even keep track of where the money is spent. It was not so when I was growing up. Every penny spent had to be accounted for.

I must be the only person who literally cried to leave the boarding school – no, not after my school finals but while returning home for my vacations. It is quite another thing that I would also cry to leave home once vacations were over. On the last day of my hostel life in Tiruchy, six of us close friends spent the night together and wept our hearts out knowing that we would perhaps never meet again. I met only one of them 2 years after I passed out but I really value their friendship till date. We had a great time together.

My results speak of an intelligent mind. But I know better. I always had someone very sincere to study with. This person would not be a very close friend of mine but as in the case of Angammal during my undergrad course, would take it upon themselves to wake me up in the morning or set targets to complete and practically force me to study. During my M.Sc. it was Poonam and the prodding of my husband helped me complete Ph.D apart from the encouragement he gave me during my Masters. So I should be actually giving a good percentage of my marks to them. In fact Angammal’s wake up call on her way to the bathroom at 4;45 IN THE MORNING had benefited our entire block in the hostel and during my combined study sessions at Poonam’s place I was treated to delicious Gujrathi food every afternoon for 7 to 8 months. Thank you Angammal and Poonam I’ll remember you always. I have so much to thank my husband for that he may get puffed up and burst. So I’d rather not tell him anything.

An interesting incident should be enough to explain how much I was pampered by my in laws. We were traveling to Chennai in 1981. The children were young and the journey was long. My father in law who was also traveling with us was helping me manage the children. A fellow passenger pointed out my FIL to my husband who was filling water at Vizag station and said –“Your father in law wants you to get some biscuits for the children. My husband had a tough time convincing him that he was the son and I was the daughter in law. I must be the only daughter in law whose mother in law would encourage her to stand up for her rights as the lady of the house. Thank you amma! I’ll always remember your support during the initial years of my life in Jamshedpur.

I really don’t know how I managed to cook for the family and reach my workplace at seven in the morning by public transport during the early days of my career because I am generally accused of being slow. Those days I did not have a mixer, grinder or a refrigerator. The children were young and the oldest among them had not yet turned 7. If as a slow coach I could achieve so much what would I have done had I been super fast! And my husband may make coffee now. During those days he could not help with cooking or dicing vegetables unlike his younger brother who would pitch in when there were visitors or it was getting late for my co – sister to leave home.

I haven’t yet learnt to say “No” and end up offering my time and energy, sometimes money too to totally undeserving people. My husband likes to blame me though he is no better. My argument is that ‘just on account of a few why punish the majority who are genuine’. I really cannot do much about this. I am like that only.

Finally, I’d give anything up to gain a few inches of height. I am in total admiration of tall people. Again I’d do anything to shed a few pounds. There has been a slow but steady increase in my weight. I was 39 kilos at the time of my marriage and am now 62/63. Why my body hoards food I cannot understand. And to top it I walk at least 5 kilometers on most mornings.

Well, these are seven things about me not very interesting or special but they are part of my nature and will probably remain so. Now to tag seven others and award them as kreativ bloggers………… and here I go!

Vishesh: you wouldn’t believe that a teenager could write such deep felt poetry. I haven’t read him for a while now. But they are a treat whenever I do.

Tys on ice: where has he vanished? He makes you think and laugh at the same time.

Preethi’s chronicle: first time I am tagging her. But her account of little V makes an interesting read.

Smitha: Her entry for the IWD contest is really worth reading. Her Jamshedpur connection makes me biased in her favor.

Smi: She has the courage to offer to adopt me for a mother in law. She may not have read this post of mine!

Gauri: of tiny tid bits. Her abhayisms make one remember the times when my own children were young. Writes very well.

Renu: whose anubhooti discusses every relevant aspect of life.