A friend recently listed 25 random things about himself. Since I haven’t written in months, why not on this? So, here goes:
1. When I was a kid, I wanted to be a truck driver.
2. In school, I loved maths, english and history. My vacations were spent ploughing through my maths textbooks (and reading books and cycling too) and I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it even more when I went back to school and solved the problems even before the other kids. In college, a couple of the lecturers realised it and would frequent my desk. Owe it all to Dad. I hated geography but somehow always topped the class in that subject. Go figure.
3. I learned to draw by myself and was/am reasonably good at it. The first person I drew was Indira Gandhi when I was six years old; of course, it was just a caricature. The first person I drew properly and painted (i.e. not a caricature) was Paolo Rossi, Italy’s 1982 FIFA World Cup winning striker.
4. My folks say my first word was ‘star’ though I pronounced it as ‘sataar’.
5. My folks also say that when I was around three and attended Sunday mass, I would sing the hymns at the top of my voice; apparently, I knew the words.
6. The first word I spelt by myself was ‘frog’. I was around four at the time and it gave me a kick.
7. I learned cycling by myself. One day, I lost control of the cycle, banged into a fat guy (from behind) and dropped him down. Needless to say, fear lent wings to my pedals.
8. Growing up, the people I admired were Alexander the Great, Abraham Lincoln, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Joan of Arc, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and Yuri Gagarin. Not in any particular order.
9. In college, I drew pictures in my textbook during the lectures. I also used the back inside cover of my accounts journal, though the only one I can remember drawing was the (then Soviet) midfielder, Alexi Mikhailichenko.
10. The Netherlands is my favourite football team for twenty years now. I just wish they would win.
11. Dad taught us chess but stopped playing once my brother and I started beating him with embarrassing frequency. We were crazy about chess in those days and would come back from school and play. Dad hid the chessboard during exams but we found it and, needless to say, put our winding down time to good use. Our grades were great but we stopped playing when we started dreaming about chess and also classifying people on the road as chess pieces. I did start again, though, eight years ago but on the internet.
12. I learned to sew when I was eleven.
13. I learned the Cyrillic script to identify cosmonauts on stamps from the erstwhile USSR.
14. During my teens, my face was literally red and black - covered with pimples and blackheads. At the time, there were no specialised skincare clinics with the effective treatments they have now. Mom would take me to the beauty salon every week and I would spend anywhere from an hour to two hours screaming while my blackheads were physically removed. To this day, I still have the pits.
15. I gave up coffee totally in 2002 when I realised I was addicted to it – drinking six to eight cups daily. Now, I can’t stomach the stuff. I love milk, though, and can’t do without my daily cuppa.
16. ‘The rate of interest is what it is because it is expected to be other than what it is. If it is not expected to be other than what it is, there is nothing left to tell us what it is and why it is.’ That is the Keynesian theory of interest (don't ask me to explain), the one useless thing that has stuck in my head all these years simply because I’d put it to song.
17. I can only wink with my left eye.
18. My first sweater (at least one I was consciously aware of wearing) was red with white buttons. It was knit by my favourite aunt and I first wore it in kindergarten.
19. I can be blunt to the point of rudeness.
20. Put me in an old building or in a museum and I can be occupied for hours. More so if I have my camera.
21. In kindergarten, my cousin and I locked our classmate in the toilet. But just for a couple of minutes. :D
22. In college, I was an ideal student. I never bunked lectures. The first time I decided to bunk, I was spotted by the professor concerned and had no choice but to attend his class. Well, I did manage to successfully bunk a few classes after that but I spent the time in the library.
23. I don’t care for Bollywood films.
24. Besides postcards and coins, I also have a collection of teddy bears. My very first one is Jonas, or Jonnie Bear as we call him. Alas, with a hobby like this, you need storage space which I'm very short on.
25. Speaking of teddy bears, as a kid who grew up on a healthy dose of Enid Blyton books, I always wanted a gollywog. Yes, they’d been out of circulation for years because of racism issues but I’ve always considered them cute and since I understand that they’re now making a comeback, if I see one, I’m definitely going to buy it.
