May I present.....

.................my very fist tag.
Ok…Coming to the tag I promised to work on.For the uninitiated like the DH and mama and my aunts who are probably the only readers of this blog other than my friend across the seas who tagged me,a tag is “something” (um-uh) in which u are asked to write on some topic or the other.And I firmly believe that this is just a polite way of telling ppl whose blogs u read and who have not posted anything for more than 3 weeks ,”Get up and post, u lazy moron”.
So coming back to the tag, here is the deal

The tag:
Two questions in each category. Answer them and then tag your friends from the blog-o-sphere. Yeah ,except that I really don’t have that many friends on that particular sphere…In fact I have only one and that one tagged me.

Yesterday

Your oldest memory

My oldest memory?I guess that means my earliest memory.(Cos technically my oldest memory wud be what I did a minute ago which wud be….scratch my back?I don’t think anyone really wud be interested in that)..hmmm…lemme think…My earliest memory wud be playing house-house in my grandmother’s bedroom by the light of a table lamp cos that was the only light switch I cud reach to turn on.Its a memory redolent with my grandmother’s perfume,cuticura powder,clean sheets,moth balls and sandalwood…It’s a smell I associate with my grandparents to this day and that is the reason why I love the Cuticura deoderant as much as I do…The large cluttered table with rusted photoframes of saints and my great grand-parents were carefully pushed aside to set up my kitchen.The one-inch space in front of the musty dusty files on the shelves below,held my imaginery groceries and a few tiny pots to make it more real.On the bed ,alternately sitting and lying down based upon whether he was asleep or going to school ,was my baby, my patient old grandfather ,white springy hair with glasses,dressed in a white baniyan and a white dhoti with bottle green border.A quiet man ,who in spite of his difficulty in moving around,wud obediently sit up when I ordered that it was time for school and go back to lying down when I decided that he had spent enuf time eating the imaginery dinner. I dunno why we never played in the mornings…It was always in the evenings before dinner and I don’t have a memory of playing with him in the mornings.
On second thoughts am not so sure if that really is my earliest memory.It cud very well be the time when my mom had me sit on the Western toilet with my legs dangling far above the floor to do my …um…daily duty…while I clutched at her tightly,terrified of falling inside the commode and wished desperately for the comfort of my green potty.
Chuckle…

Though as my grandmother used to say, my earliest memory shud really have been the time I was standing at the window of my grandparent’s bedroom and waving at my grandfather who was out for his daily stroll in the overgrown garden at the back of the house. Supposedly, I was standing at the window and repeatedly waving when my grandmother asked me who am waving to. I replied that am waving at granddad and I believe the lady thought nothing of it until I called out to my granddad “Why are u sitting there? Come here”.My grandmother asked me where my granddad was sitting and I replied “In that pit” and that’s when my grandmother luckily decided to investigate and found that my poor granddad had lost his balance and fallen into a pit.Since I was the only soul in the vicinity he was waving at me for help while I cheerfully waved back at him.In my defense, I have absolutely no memory of the incident and really cannot tell u why it seemed perfectly normal that my granddad wud sit in a mud pit in his white dhoti and wave at me.All I can think of is that all adults did strange things and when questioned,always claimed that a child wud not understand.

What were you doing 10 years ago?

Cripes!!let me count back and figure out which class I was in.I guess it wud be 1998 and that was the year I wrote my tenth standard exams.Well,ten years ago wud be 1998 November.Correction.I wud have finished my tenth std exams and wud have been half way thru the 11th std curriculum.I cud have been anywhere from the labs to the PT ground or maybe the yoga hall..Havent got a clue.

Today


Your first thought today morning

Did DH finally run away? Chuckle…just kidding…To be honest, the first thought was that I did not have any horrible dreams, thank God!!!.I have all kindsa weird horrible dreams that seem extremely real and worry the life out of me…And I make sure I tell them to someone cos apparently there is some old belief that a dream at dawn will come true.and that if u tell it to someone it wont come true…Even after telling it ,I still worry abt it coming true .and so weird or not,any horrible dream is immediately described to the DH to make sure that it does not come true..and for good measure ,I tell it to my Mama too,though she really has much less patience than the DH for my verbose accounts of my weird dream.I guess she doesn’t realise that the verbose accounts rise from a sheer terror that missing an important detail may cause the dream to come true.
To the ppl out there gaping in shock that I cud be capable of such superstitions,well,to each his own belief…and lets say I have my own reasons.
Its almost 2 years…since I lost a very dear friend.I cant say the wound has healed..and I will never forget how I woke up at 4 a.m. in the morning,heart pounding,trying to remember who I saw in the dream,still shaking with the violence of the accident as I saw it.The more I tried to remember the face,the faster the dream receded,leaving behind only a taste of terror, a helplessness…A week later my friend passed away….My friend did not die in an accident. He died of a heart attack at a ripe old age of 23 years,with just one exam to clear to achieve his dream of becoming a post grad, poised to be a team lead in a week’s time ,nominated for a promotion due the next month.I have never been able to shake off chilling thought that it was his face that I saw in the dream.

If you built a time capsule today what would it contain?

Well,that’s an easy one.Of course ,Dad,Mama,DH,Buntu,Tofy , some food supplies,a few good books,a laptop with an internet connection,lotsa craft supplies.
Sheer bliss!!!Lets go!!!

Tomorrow


This year ….
Hmmm….This year has been…chuckle…an experience.Honestly ,that’s the only way it cud be described.I got married and more importantly , made the right choice;Marvelled at the community effort that took place at a state level that in a nutshell can be described as my marriage;realised how blessed I am that so many ppl cared; Put up with a lot of crap and then realised I did not have to;Lost myself and found myself;Got my career into perspective; Found lots of hobbies and am loving it,blogged more regularly than I thought I wud, found an amazing kindred spirit across the seas and fell in love with her,found myself a new aunt and fell in love with her;made lots of new friends and learnt the value of a smile on a tuf day.Missed my dog,my bro,my parents and my country to the point of insanity(yeah,there was a point when I started thinking I shud have become a bajji wali or atleast married a bajjiwala.That wud have kept me in my own country) . And still stayed put in the belief that they wud not expect anything less of me.

And at this point am happy and planning a banana nut cake for the evening.

What do you see yourself doing 14 years from now?

I see myself as mad as ever, as loony as ever if not more and as creative as ever…Maybe a little more patient. Actually, I don’t see that at all…mmm..hmmm..Nope.I don’t see that at all.