Twenty five random things about myself?? Hmmm…. well you asked for it taggers, IHM, Monika, Isabel, Deeps, Solilo & Co. Anyone else?? Since my blogs are mostly about myself, there maybe repetition of facts. Brace yourselves, here I go.

1. I hate to be lied to. I can take the truth, all truths, even the bitterest. And I am particularly annoyed with those people like doctors, elders in the family, men et al who hide the truth on the presumption that you are a woman and don’t have the strength to face the truth. Oh really??!! Give me a break. All I can tell them is ‘Grow up!’ It is a pity people measure others (in this case moi) according to their own weaknesses.

2. In my post graduate year, the junior batch gifted me a baby tooth brush and honored me with the title of ‘best smile’ The title of course was simple, direct and easy enough to understand. But the gift complicated matters a bit. I mean, what was its real objective?? Was it their subtle way of telling me my teeth needed more brushing?? The question remains unanswered to this day.

3. I wanted to be a dancer (I learnt a little of bharatanatyam and kuchipudi as a kid)) and if that was not possible at least learn to sing. I was not allowed to continue my lessons in the former and was denied a chance at the latter.

4. I refuse to accept criticisms, statements, orders thrown at me, without proper back up and explanations giving reasons. ‘Because I said so’ is not a good enough reason and will be summarily rejected. Convince me by citing proper reasons and I am game. If not, just forget it. I may keep quiet but rest assured that I have not accepted it one bit and also that you’ve lost my respect for trying to bulldoze me or taking me for a pushover.

5. Patience is my other middle-name. I bend over backwards to keep peace. But beware of the day that the bending over eventually makes me creak and break. Then run for it. The break, when it happens is always final. No requests for patch-ups will be entertained.
   

6. Change doesn’t faze me. I have been moving places and houses since I was a toddler. In fact staying put at one place too long makes me restless. That’s an understatement. It drives me nuts is more like it.
   

7. I don’t have any role models up on a pedestal whom I want to emulate. I don’t think any individual is all good and worthy enough to be ‘worshiped.’ I learn as I go through life from each and everyone, most of all from the most ordinary people and mundane events, taking bits and pieces from each.

8. I have a pet aversion to those people who tell me what I mean by my own words and action as if they reside inside my brain. The very idea, the nerve!! What conceit if not an out and out funny. As if they could ever know if they lived a million years!!

9. Funnily enough, any problems, difficulties I have faced in life have all been because I have been good. Not once has it been because I was bad. Right from my childhood up to the present. Hmmm… maybe it is time I changed.

10. Live and let live is my policy. I refuse to advice people. Even when specifically asked, all I am prepared to do is say how I would have handled the situation if it happened to me, never what the other person should do. We are all different, individuals in our own right. I sincerely believe each one must find their own answer that suit themselves.
    

11. I laugh at people who dare me to do anything. No way are you going to make me do what you want. Oh no Siree. I cannot understand the logic of those who jump in head first as soon as they hear a dare, doing exactly what the darer wants. Haha, how childish and ridiculous, proving yourself by letting someone else make you do what they want! I will do things when I feel like it, not because anyone dares me to and thus transforming me to a puppet.

12. During the year Sushmita Sen and Aishwarya Rai were competing for Miss India, my three year old Second Born asked me in all innocence, ‘Why didn’t you go participate, Amma??’ and when I asked in surprise, “Me??” added, “You’d surely have won!” Geeeee….

13. Roundabout the same time, when Meri Awaz Suno the music program was the rage (Remember the little girl Sunidhi Chauhan?), the elder son wanted me to enter the contest. ‘You sing beautifully, Amma, you will win if you entered’ he said. Well, who needs anything else with children like them?

14. I believed all my life that I was a duffer, with not much of a brain to speak of, the idea helpfully planted and re-enforced by continuous repetition by near and dear ones around me, till the time I got my license to drive and learnt to use the computer, both just as I stepped into my 40s. Life truly begins at 40!

15. I hate with a passion bordering on murderous rage those insensitive morons who make crass statements (a la Mallu politician) or joke about ‘rape’ (starting with Mallu/Hindi movies, probably all regional ones) or make remarks that a woman ‘asked for it’ or ‘she did not fight hard enough to escape the rapist’s clutches’ and such utter crap. I bet this same morons would be helplessly whimpering if they were mugged and their wallets stolen and crying for police action to find and punish the culprits. Wallets are more important than girls/women.

16. I never never ever forget. The only option to make me do so is pray really hard… that I get Alzheimer’s. As for being forgiven, only very special people are. The rest, no go. And no, not forgiving is not killing me either. 

17. I am prone to go “Oh yeah?? Says who?” at people who dare suggest that women are inferior. Different from men yes, but inferior? Never! And women deserve the same opportunities as men too. What they do with those opportunities is their business entirely. I had the experience of a young boy of twenty-four insisting to me via the comments’ section that women are inferior, after reading one of my humorous posts. Obviously he didn’t get the humor and to top it he thought he could rattle me by sending repeated messages that women are inferior to men. Poor boy, imagine how it must be not to have a life at twenty-four other than to message an older woman to try and convince her that she was inferior to men/him!

18. I am crazy about Wodehouse books and feel an instant rapport with fellow fans. Those who enjoy humor are special people and those who understand Wodehouse’s humor are even more special. I am not merely a Bertie-Jeeves fan who seem to be the universal favorites. I am more of a Psmith and Gally fan.

19. I eat very less. So if any of you intend inviting me please please don’t go to the trouble of making anything extra. What I need can be scraped off the vessels you cooked your meals in. Don’t dream of taking me for a buffet dinner unless you want to waste some money.

20. Omni van is what I drive but now my family is bent on making me drive something else. What will it be, a WagonR, Estilo, Santro, Spark?? Not decided yet. Sigh! I love my Maruti Omni.

21. I have had people telling me repeatedly from my late teens onward that I look young for my age (when I was pregnant with my First Born Dad’s acquaintance asked me which school I was in) that I developed this irrational fear that I’d surely wake up one day to find myself totally old, a la Rip Van Winkle. Phew, I am glad I got here without much mishap.

22. I am pretty good at multi tasking, but only when there is no one breathing down my neck or checking on me. I resent people telling me what to do or reminding me of tasks I have to do as if I am an idiot child. I feel like screaming. But I simply keep quiet. Remember, I am patient!

23. I value freedom. I may not want to walk out the door, but I want that door open always.

24. I am a fresh air freak. I cannot understand the average Mallu’s penchant for living in houses with all the windows closed and breathing stale air that can be sliced with a knife. Sheesh, why not make houses with no windows if you don’t want to open them at all?!!

25. I am the Most Misunderstood Person (MMP) as opposed to the Human Rainbow Person (HRP) which is me by my friend Bob’s reckoning. Thank you, Bob. Anyone who wants to usurp the title of MMP better come up with solid facts and no teary eyed stuff please because this is not the ‘nobody understands me’ *sniff sniff* on a self-pity roll stuff I am speaking of. It is the plain and simple fact. I truly believe I live in the wrong era/age/planet. And strangely enough instead of getting upset when people misunderstand me, I am secretly happy. Haha, after all the real me is still well hidden! It follows from this that nobody knows the real me. Period. They just think they do.

Now any blame for boring the readers may please be laid at the feet of the above mentioned group consisting of IHM, Monika, Isabel, Solilo, Deeps and Co. Have Ileft anyone out? They are the culprits who let me loose on unsuspecting fellow bloggers to write about twenty five random things about me. So if there are complaints, bricks may please be aimed at them. I am the innocent party in all this. 😉