Stupidity through the ages...I really have do a better job at living life on earth... I start with these confessions...
* I was training to be a gymnast. Had the build for it for sure - though at that age it wasn't clear. What if things changed and I became this amazon of a person? Not that I was thinking about such. I used to enjoy it. Was excellent in floor exercises. Pretty much like a little ball rolling down that dusty mat all day long. I quit because the coach was being mean, a little bit. Mostly because there were all these beautiful girls he was paying attention to and I was (am) an underdeveloped tomboy.
* I once was in a tournament where our school was rocking all the prizes, sort of. My friend Smitha, who was a couple years younger than I, and I were in contention for the high jump medals. Along with a few others from other schools. Who were sucking it up big time. My teacher came and said 'you knock the bar next time, so we get both gold & silver, that will give us maximum points in the tally' I am ashamed to say I listened to him. Could have taken that height easy, was top of my form that day. And rationalised it by saying that kid deserved it better.
* I once ran a 100m dash on some species of artificial turf, barefoot. I didn't own spikes till I got to college. Because no one thought I should have it, and I was not pushing the agenda so much. Didn't think I was good enough to deserve it. Fucking 80s - everything was so screwed up then. The soles of my feet went black and blue and were incredibly painful for days after. I was proud of myself for it. I won a lot of medals in that tournament and had to walk up in school assembly many times to the front. Painful as hell, stupid as fuck.
* I once fainted on that bridge across the Charles river behind my place in Harvard Square. I was running, and I just...blacked out for a second or two. This is a cause of much mirth for my husband who claims I fell down limp asparagus style on the bridge. Yes, I was fine after that and we walked back home and thats the day I discovered the joys of hot sunny days and dehydrated bodies. This is why I like running in Chennai. Its the real deal, I tell you. Also, I hate running at any time except early mornings.
* My name is up on some board in the IITM campus because I won that medal when I graduated. I am getting better about taking visitors to show that thing off to. However, when I showed it to my daughter, she said 'big deal its all the way in the corner.' A quick gender count reveals a startling fact (not). There are like 40 names there. 38 names are of boys. On some days, even now, I am sick of fighting the gender fight. On other days, I am super happy that I am not a guy. I couldn't deal with the simplicity of mental thoughts.
* Speaking of names, my name is Preeti Aghalayam. I work as an Associate Professor in Chemical Engineering at IIT Madras. I was at IIT Bombay before this, doing the same thing. With this, I out myself.
Who knows, someday, you might find some photographs of me here, that proves that point? Meanwhile, you can call me Kenny. In real life too, many people call me that!
* I was training to be a gymnast. Had the build for it for sure - though at that age it wasn't clear. What if things changed and I became this amazon of a person? Not that I was thinking about such. I used to enjoy it. Was excellent in floor exercises. Pretty much like a little ball rolling down that dusty mat all day long. I quit because the coach was being mean, a little bit. Mostly because there were all these beautiful girls he was paying attention to and I was (am) an underdeveloped tomboy.
* I once was in a tournament where our school was rocking all the prizes, sort of. My friend Smitha, who was a couple years younger than I, and I were in contention for the high jump medals. Along with a few others from other schools. Who were sucking it up big time. My teacher came and said 'you knock the bar next time, so we get both gold & silver, that will give us maximum points in the tally' I am ashamed to say I listened to him. Could have taken that height easy, was top of my form that day. And rationalised it by saying that kid deserved it better.
* I once ran a 100m dash on some species of artificial turf, barefoot. I didn't own spikes till I got to college. Because no one thought I should have it, and I was not pushing the agenda so much. Didn't think I was good enough to deserve it. Fucking 80s - everything was so screwed up then. The soles of my feet went black and blue and were incredibly painful for days after. I was proud of myself for it. I won a lot of medals in that tournament and had to walk up in school assembly many times to the front. Painful as hell, stupid as fuck.
* I once fainted on that bridge across the Charles river behind my place in Harvard Square. I was running, and I just...blacked out for a second or two. This is a cause of much mirth for my husband who claims I fell down limp asparagus style on the bridge. Yes, I was fine after that and we walked back home and thats the day I discovered the joys of hot sunny days and dehydrated bodies. This is why I like running in Chennai. Its the real deal, I tell you. Also, I hate running at any time except early mornings.
* My name is up on some board in the IITM campus because I won that medal when I graduated. I am getting better about taking visitors to show that thing off to. However, when I showed it to my daughter, she said 'big deal its all the way in the corner.' A quick gender count reveals a startling fact (not). There are like 40 names there. 38 names are of boys. On some days, even now, I am sick of fighting the gender fight. On other days, I am super happy that I am not a guy. I couldn't deal with the simplicity of mental thoughts.
* Speaking of names, my name is Preeti Aghalayam. I work as an Associate Professor in Chemical Engineering at IIT Madras. I was at IIT Bombay before this, doing the same thing. With this, I out myself.
Who knows, someday, you might find some photographs of me here, that proves that point? Meanwhile, you can call me Kenny. In real life too, many people call me that!
18 comments:
OK -- you have to take me to see that board next time.
sure lets go!
Fuck, you're on that board? Just the other day I was showing my main running wing man Kid that my bijiness partner's name was on that board! Damn...
ludwig - with friends like you... its like RIGHT THERE DAMMIT.
well, the ratio kinda works out to around what the male:female ratio in a typical IITM batch was.. 38:2 is 19:1, which is better than what my batch had which was 400 odd guys with like 21 girls or something like that.. heheh.
lounger- which makes sense if you don't consider the fact that an average female person is worth about 10 of the average male person. oh. i apologise. i don't mean your family members, i mean the others. :-)
whoa. outing and all! feels weird calling you preeti in blogsville somehow!
serious lounger does have a point, and so do you in your reply to him ;)
our batch had what - 20 women to 300-something guys - we are/were the highest ever ratio?!
how is it now?
and that board - not seen it but yay to you, yet again. who is the other woman on it? obviously someone after we left because you were the first.
chox call me kenny. the other one - the singer girl. very sweet. we overlapped. Anitha?
yup anitha. my branch junior. awesome voice. she's on the board too? yay!
Why the revealing of the names? If I ever met you, I would still call you Kenny. Kenny the runner :) Preeti can be the professor
sraikh- as you should. would be awesome to meet up. theres drinks for you at my house with your name on it! Come visit us! I have like a bunch of blogs (work stuff) and sometimes i comment from the other log in and its getting a bit hard to manage so i decided to try to merge my online identities!
Ludwig why are you here anyway -- thought you were supposed be somewhere in Africa...
Hi Preeti....delurking to say Hi...I enjoy reading your blog but have never commented...
I have this special admiration for IITian (is this a word - never mind) ..you are really awesome....
I feel like running atleast a half/quarter marathon when I read all your posts:)
Keep writing
-Sudha
Sudha- IITians is, apparently an acceptable word. Some of us are nice, for sure. (at least aspire to be nice).
madrasi- He is back for ages now. He didn't tell you?
Howdy, Prof!
It's been a while since we met- I'm kind of missing you.
Missed all the activity! Nice posts.... and this board, in the ad block is it? So proud of you.
Hi Preeti / Kenny, one more @ delurking. I ran into your blog off Ravi's blog and have been following it for a couple of months. Some really inspiring stuff here! :-)
S. - welcome! Thanks for delurking!
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