Celebrations!

So I think its fair to say that I have had a full life. I take a leaf from my favourite fictional character, the one-and-only Psmith, and begin at the beginning. Meaning my formative years.

I spent the first few years in bliss, trying to resist sleep (which came all too easily), so I could catch the exact moment when the bud ceased to be a bud, and became in fact the flower. Many a summer night were spent thus in the garden, watching jasmine bushes. I attained fame for abilities to sleep sitting, standing, etc. thanks to this pastime. Moving on to schooling years. School was fun, always, the curriculum was fairly trivial till I reached the eleventh standard (and that chapter on Angular Momentum and Ice-Skating). And I spent my time fruitfully, exploring the vast school compound, tracing patterns on paper to mimic the movements of favourite worms, collecting the cones one must use to feed ice-cream to elves with (from the Eucalyptus trees). On Saturdays I derived especial enjoyment in rolling in the red mud of my school wearing the white uniform (complete with white socks and shoes). The stated excuse was that we were playing kho-kho. Hours and hours of running around in the manner of a snake; weaving my way through the sitting forms of people of opposite teams, and the jubilation when time ran out and I was still running around. Upon reaching home, my neat-freak of a mom ran me straight into the backyard and into the bath, my proclamations of my spectacular performance at the game falling on deaf (though very clean) ears.

College was a time to grow up a tad, explore oneself, make different sort of friends, and of course eat crackjack biscuits sitting on a culvert near the hostel. My obsession with books took a back-seat in college and I weaned myself off pulp fiction quite successfully. I fell in love multiple times, first of all with the sylvan surroundings, then with everything else around me (stopping short of course of the hostel food), including Mount Road, Stella Maris College, Women's Christian College (where we used to roam around attending culturals, winning and then spending prize money). Of course I dug out future husband from the midst of sweaty brown basketball players at some point (with this I attend to the engagement tag from choxbox).

Graduate school in verdant New England in decrepit apartments made me discover passion for cooking; and a nostalgic love for Indian authors. The convenient public library was a great hang-out, despite shocks to system arising from people borrowing Wodehouse on Tape. Imaginatively named places such as The Pub (which was a pub)added a whole lot of colour to my life in graduate school, while the weekend outings to the famous basketball courts gave me my exercise (and a notoriousness as a down and dirty player who never worried about hurting herself while inflicting a foul on a person twice her size).

The short stint in Cambridge was wonderful because it gave me the time to get into teaching. My tall Mexican high school student's face when she got her 100% in Chemistry is a vivid memory though her name has escaped into the ether. That year and half was relaxing and fun, though a tad cold at times.

The five years here in amchi Mumbai are too complex to trivialise in a sentence or two. But suffice to say that I really do feel like I have had a full life, a matter not entirely attributable to the fact that I saw Salman Khan in person at the Marathon few years ago.

Now to the nub, or crux of the post (finally!). I celebrate today, with this post, the following facts. Luck has stood by my side always. My husband of 10+ years, and the monster we have spawned, are precisely what I need. I am thankful hugely to my relationship with my mom, which tis very special. I have wonderful friends and very meaningful relationships with them. And today (or rather in real fact, yesterday), rather unexpectedly, having long given up the search or may I say quest, for it - my first white hair. With this addition, I can go ahead and wax eloquent and philosophise and willy-nilly advice people on matters. I am now one of the wise!!