WHO ARE WE?

OK, I don’t mean your About Me page or your Twitter bio or how you describe yourself on Facebook. I mean, all of it.

Let’s take it from the beginning.

When I was say younger, people knew me as my elder sister’s younger sister. Yes, one of the pitfalls of being the younger sibling to a smarter, very pretty, popular elder sibling. Everyone will call you by “their name –followed by the sibling tag”. And that’s how it went till I started calling myself by my name or just when my sister changed school.

Asked to write an “About Myself” essay and it would include the tedious details of how fun-loving, outgoing, friendly, love reading books, hanging out, surfing the net, listening to music - person we all are.

Then, college. Here you are known by the subject you take or the controversies you create. Yes, I was known as the Psychology girl from the Arab World. And that is how I referred to myself as – Name- followed by “the girl from Psychology”. Well, it didn’t matter that there were 30 other girls from Psychology. They probably called their selves the same.

At work, obviously, but obviously, you are defined by your work. I am the psychologist. And that is how one would introduce oneself. “Name – followed by profession”.

Then, comes the oh – so – intriguing online world. The world’s your stage here. Say what you want, everyone believes you. Here, you could be the person you had always wanted to be! But when it comes to writing “about myself”; just what can you include.

The details of how you were a nerdy be-spectacled younger sister to a elder sister, the Psychology mumbo jumbo, your interests, the movies you like, your hobbies, your family, being a mommy / wife /aunt (if you are one!) or what?

Really, who are we? Or, who are you?

WHERE ARE YOU FROM?

I always get that question. And I find it hard to answer. Oh no, not because I don’t know where I am from. Just because people confuse me further.

I was born in India. But when I was four, we shifted to the UAE. And that is where I stayed till I was 17. Finished school and went to India for higher education. Finished my Masters and now I am back in the UAE.

So every time I am asked that question, I launch into a big 500-or-more-words-essay-type-answer of telling them how I was born in India, raised in UAE and then did my higher education in India and now am working in the UAE.

And that is usually followed by… “I meant country” and “Am I talking to a crazy person” look.

So when we were young, my dad made sure we took our annual vacations in India. So vacations there were spent by our cousins telling us, “So, Dubai returned kids, don’t like the weather here, and don’t like the water here…eh?” And poor me, all of 10 would answer it by saying, “Why do you say this, I AM from India, I just live there, that’s it.”

In college, during our introduction, I identified myself as from India and then one professor mentioned this… young lady, aren’t you from the Arab world. No I am not, I just lived there. I am from India. No use, they all kept referring to me as the Indi-Arab.

Now, what raises that question…the color of my skin, the way I dress, my accent, my bright jazzy Mojris (the most comfortable footwear ever!) or just plain curiosity. Not that I hate answering it, just that the question implies that it should be answered by one country and that is just not possible anymore.

So maybe I look like a Pakistani, maybe my habits are Arab, maybe my likes are Indian, but I keep thinking… should I, just should I just show them my passport? I mean…technically.

Had trouble answering the question? Born here, lived there, and worked elsewhere and totally from all the way over there? Isn’t the world just a huge, huge thing! 

I GOT AN AWARD!!

So this amazing red head - Janine Ripper - has given me one of the best gifts of the blogging journey – The Versatile Blogger Award. For bloggers, that is like yay!; for those who don’t know any better – all awards are nice, let’s just keep it at that and be happy for me!

There are rules though. I have to now “bestow” the honor onto seven others and write down seven random things about myself!  This doesn’t seem to hard, I am good at ranting! So here goes …

Seven random things about myself:

1. My immune system is a total mess. I get a cold every time the weather changes. I thought about this because I am sick at the moment!
2. I am a total junk food lover. No amount of healthy eating facts can deter my love for it.
3. I talk way too much. If you know me personally, you are definitely nodding your head vigorously at this! Yes, way too much and too fast!
4. I don’t like cricket (the game). I thought of this because with the Cricket World Cup going on and the fact that I am so not interested in it despite hailing from a cricket – crazy country and a cricket crazy family. So nowadays, I am surrounded by this “unwanted” cricket frenzy!
5. I will probably be treated for shoe obsession sometime in the near future. I have never come empty handed out of a shoe store! Surprisingly, I HATE shopping otherwise!
6. As a kid, I was scared of water and thus never learnt how to swim properly. To this day, I can just do it to the point of saving myself from drowning!
7. I love singing and I have the worst singing voice ever! But that doesn’t stop me…I still sing out loud!

Ok, so now I have to pick my seven others to pass this on to. So here goes:

1. Heather Fonseca at Heather’s Design Blog
2. Inka at Glamour Granny Travels
3. Veronica Campos – Hallstrom at Club Creative Studio
4. Cathy Jones at Just My Thoughts
5. Linda Esposito at Talk Therapy Biz
6. Bonnie Copeland at My Rivendell
7. Michael at OutMaturity

Ok guys, for those who have to pass it on there are two rules : One, say seven things about yourself. Two, share the award with seven other people.

Don’t you just love blogging!

TEN TIDBITS!

So I am into this 90 day bloggers support program (BIG YAY! To the TLC Bloggers!) and I will be blogging almost twice a week – fingers crossed. I seriously didn’t know what to begin with… and was too lazy (like always) to cook up something new!

So I came up with this. Two of my favorite bloggers Janine Ripper and Tristan Higbee “inspired” me to do this…(go check out their amazing blogs, but finish reading mine first!) and rumor has it that it gets a lot of comments, retweets and the likes. Random things about myself for you to get to know me better!

1.       I was born in India. I was raised in United Arab Emirates. I did my higher studies in India. I work in United Arab Emirates….kind of like alternating the place with every stage.

2.       I can embroider…probably NO ONE, besides my mom, knows this and she is so happy to have kept this “secret”!

3.       I hate cooking and I love eating. “I live to eat” is an understatement to my love for food! I can never come up with a favorite cuisine. I just love it all.

4.       As a kid, I never liked stuffed toys or dolls and I still don’t. Boxes from my childhood are filled with books, comics, newspaper cuttings….I was way too boring as kid.

5.       I have a fetish for shoes.  At one time I had more shoes than clothes. Everywhere I go I seem to fin d the “perfect” shoe…always!

My trip to Jehangiri Mahal
(Jehangir's Palace, Agra)
P.S. I am near the entrance,
yes...bad photographer...
but this is my favorite monument 

6.       I love architecture and history. Mughal architecture is my favorite and it never ceases to fascinate me.  I have been to most places with Mughal history and I can go there a million times again.

7.       I am a voracious reader. My favorite authors are William Dalrymple, Khaled Hosseini and  Oscar Wilde. I loved Sidney Sheldon books as a teenager. I recently finished reading Fatima Bhutto’s Songs of Blood and Sword and I loved it.

8.       Chocolate and cheese are my favorite flavors except, of course, chocolate pizza and cheese ice cream (if there is anything of that sort). My favorite indulgence is dark chocolate ice cream or a brownie or anything chocolate with hot chocolate sauce…

9.       I am crazy about movies. So crazy that just last week I watched over ten movies. I am a sissy though; I just can’t watch horror movies. My favorite movie is Forrest Gump which brings me to my favorite actor – Tom Hanks. I was so in awe of him after watching Forrest Gump that I ended up watching ALL of his movies.

10.   I would love to learn photography mainly because I think I am a pathetic photographer and the camera just hates me, so I am going to treat it as revenge!

So…that’s done…tell me something about YOU that I don’t know!

Do we share interests or am I the only boring one around?

360 degrees

I am just back from a long road trip and boy, do I miss the good old times. Though I come from a big family, it was just mom, dad, me, mobile and the laptop this time. Well, I can instantly rewind ten years back and almost contrast the road trips from then and now. Well, it wasn’t black and white back then but it sure was different. Mom and Dad were the constant elements, I was a klutzy teenager, the mobile was replaced by siblings; the laptop was compensated for by the good old word game.

Sadly now, the siblings have been scattered across the globe due to the villain called “life”. The mobile is a drug I can’t live without. And the laptop is just a measure to cut down on the boredom and silence which engulfs the monotonous trip.

Earlier it was all about packing the right stuff – hoarding on loads of junk that is, pillows for the comfortable car ride, fighting for the window seat – yes, we did that on the four wheel too, making up quirky words to beat your kin at the word game - I remember using the word kinesthetically, and screaming until your mom shouts crazy from the front seat – threats like “We will drop you off right here, right in the middle of the desert!”

And the best part was getting lost. It leads to an awkward silence, some nagging (I told you we should have taken a left) and a frantic map tracing.

Now, we have a GPS and I have all the back seat space to myself. I am using the mobile to message people about my whereabouts. And oh yes, I bought that mobile because it had a zillion megapixel camera which I can use to click nonsensical road photos – posing next to withered cactus, posing when the sunsets, posing with the scattered clouds high over head, some sand dunes which look picture pretty and many other pictures which I will never recall ten years later.

And the laptop to help me upload those pics instantly so that I feel proud in showing all my 500+ friends what a “wonderful” weekend I have just had!

Ending on a prayer for more road trips…Amen!

Click!

I don’t like looking back or flipping through old photographs, period. I really don’t understand the big deal behind them. I know it bring backs a flood of memories of how cute we were or how blissful those times were. I understand how old photographs – maybe black and white, small… tiny actually, rounded edges, some hazy, some blurred, with lots of fingerprints on them – has us all reminiscing about old times, but sadly, not me. Call me complaining, but old pictures, according to me, should be where they are – in albums, all stored up in the box labeled “photos”, surrounded by cobwebs, deep down in the basement.

For me, looking at old photographs brings back a downpour of bad recollections. Don’t believe me, I can point out a number of reasons I stay away from “photographic nostalgia”.

Old pictures are filled with innumerable neighbors some long forgotten and some long lost. Every “picture session time” ends with my mum saying “You’re so selfish and cold, how come you don’t remember these people, these kids played with you in the colony park, these bought you presents on your fourth birthday, they lived in the apartment right across, they called you by your pet name, cried when we shifted to a new neighborhood and now, to listen to my own daughter simply forget them. What has the world come to?”

Then, there are the unmistakable “bad pose pictures”. For the lucky lot who never experiences such displeasure, let me divulge what that phrase means. “Bad pose pictures” as is obvious, is the perennial shot most likely associated with the some doomed un - photogenic lot, including me. Or is it that as kids, we pose in the most unspeakable manner there is to be. Whatever it was, it has me running for cover. There has to be a picture with oversized glasses, blowing off birthday candles (yes, that exact moment when your mouth is full of air), two ponytails standing like antennas, squinting in the sun or the classic shot wherein your aunt or whoever it was, dressed you like a lady, complete with sari, makeup and high heels and clicked away to glory. Looking at them now, I am all red faced, others around me are “Oh look at you, so foolish yet so cute”.

Oh, I could just go on about this, but don’t worry I won’t. Next time you flip through those captured moments, hope you don’t find reasons to abhor them like I do.

Also, I would like to take a moment to thank the architect of the digital camera. May you be blessed for having put the delete option… Amen