A

- Available: For What?
- Age: 31
- Annoyance: Men peeing all over the pot and juggling their crotches
- Animal: I am a cat but I love dogs

B

- Beer: Hoegaarden
- Birthday/Birthplace: Mumbai
- Body Part on opposite sex: Eyes and mouth
- Best feeling in the world: Hugs and hot baths
- Blind or Deaf: Deaf
- Best weather: Sunny and slightly humid
- Been in Love: Yes
- Been on stage?: Yes
- Believe in yourself?: Sometimes
- Believe in life on other planets: Yes
- Believe in miracles: Yes
- Believe in Magic: Yes
- Believe in God: Well, something divine
C

- Car: Electric (want one)
- Candy: boiled sweets
- Color: Red
- Cried in school: Yes
- Chocolate/Vanilla: Chocolate
- Country to visit: China, Bhutan, Burma, Vietnam, Japan
D

- Day or Night: Night
- Danced: Yes
- Dance in the rain?: No, don’t like cold water
- Do the splits?: In the Jurassic age

E

- Eggs: All kinds
- Eyes: Brown
- Everyone has: to have love

F

- First crush: seventh standard?
- First thoughts waking up: I can sleep for five minutes more
- Food: dal cooked by my mother or varan by my aunt with rice, ghee, lime, pickle and yoghurt
- Greatest Fear: Losing my loved ones
- Giver or taker: Bit of both
- Goals:To get fitter
- Get along with your parent(s)?: Yes, though have had phases when they drove me nuts (and vice-versa)

H

- Hair Colour: Black/dark brown and some gray
- Height: 5 feet and half an inch!
- Happy: When I am with a good book
- How do you want to die: Still in control of all my senses and bodily functions
- Health freak?: More where A is concerned!
- Hate: Religious fundamentalists

I

- Ice Cream: Vanilla or coffee. Not a big fan of ice-cream generally.
- Instrument: Tanpura

J

- Jewellery: gold, silver, wood, glass, stones, intricate designs, esp those taken from plants
- Job: Writing but also studying (does that count as a job?)

K

- Kids: Time to start planning them
- Kickboxing or karate: karate and kalari
- Keep a journal?: No, unless you count the blog

L
- Love: A, my family, books, music, my friends, massages, the sun, the sea, travelling
- Laughed so hard you cried: in Thailand
- Love at first sight: No

M

- Mooned anyone?: No
- Marriage: is hard work, but I love it
- Motion sickness?: No. A’s motion sickness is more than enough for this family.

N

- Number of Siblings: 1
- Number of Piercings: 2, used to be four

O

- One wish: That’s a secret

P

- Place you’d like to live: Bangalore/a farm somewhere
- Perfect Pizza: Not had it yet
- Pepsi/Coke: Neither

Q

- Questionnaires: Aaargh, just had to get many filled in for my dissertation

R

- Reason to cry: when I am angry and helpless, when I am frustrated, when I’m VERY sad, when I watch movies (cry at the drop of a hat then), when I see animals and children being mistreated
- Reality T.V: Sach ka samna-just discovered it. Does it count as reality tv?
- Roll your tongue in a circle: I can

S

- Song: Stand by me
- Shoe size: 5
- Slept outside: Yes
- Seen a dead body? Yes
- Smoked?: Yes, once, on a cold mountain trek
- Skinny dipped?: Yes
- Shower daily?: No, but I do bathe daily!
- Sing well?: No
- In the shower?: Yes
- Swear?: Sometimes
- Stuffed Animals?: An owl
- Single/Group dates: Sometimes
- Strawberries/Blueberries: Both
- Scientists need to invent: things to stop global warming

T

- Time for bed: Late
- Thunderstorms: Samosas, coffee, hot chutney, a razai
- TV: The news. Loathe all sitcoms
- Touch your tongue to your nose: No

U

- Unpredictable: Totally

V

- Vegetable you hate: Dill (more a herb, really)
- Vegetable you love: Potato, okra, pumpkin, many more
- Vacation spot: Indonesia

W

- Weakness: Sleep and chocolate cake
- When you grow up:I will have children, a house in India, and have written a phd and a novel AND have my own business. How’s that?
- Worst feeling: Being with the blackness inside,when it appears
- Wanted to be a model?: No
- Where do we go when we die: Somewhere nice, hopefully
- Worst weather: Cold and grey

X

-X-Rays: My sister uses them in her work

Y

-Year it is now: 2009
- Yellow: Sunlight

Z

- Zoo animal: Lions and Tigers
- Zodiac sign: Leo

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1. Marine Drive
2. Bhel Puri
3. Banganga
4. Carter Road
5. Linking Road chappal shops
6. Worli Sea Face
7. Strand Book Stall. Taken here as a treat every month by my mother when I was small.
8. Jehangir Art Gallery and the Samovar Cafe there
9. National Gallery of Modern Art
10. The restaurants. Mahesh Lunch Home, Trishna, Apurva, Swati Snacks…
11. Mohammad Ali Road during Eid
12. Ganesh Chaturthi, tuneless music and all
13. The Hindustani music concerts
14. The fact that so many people from all over India live there, and you hear so many languages and so many different cuisines are available. The fact that Bombay has Parsis in such large numbers.
15. The humid weather. I LOVE it. I start glowing in Bombay’s sticky heat…not just with sweat but happiness.
16. The way the city never sleeps and the way you can go out at any time of the night to get a bite to eat and enjoy the sea breeze and convivial atmosphere. This is a special night time buzz that I have yet to feel in any other Indian city.
17. The taxis (not at the airport and at the railway stations). Cheap and not out to fleece you.
18. The sea. The sea. The sea
19. Amarsons
20. Breach Candy
21. Crossword at Hughes Road
22. The doctors. Amongst the best in the world
23. Breach Candy Hospital
24. KEM Hospital
25. The anonymity the city allows you
26. The sense of enterprise
27.The cobbler who has a shop under our building
28. The men in Bombay, of all classes, can be a problem, especially in the way they treat women, as in all Indian cities. But there are others. I applaud especially the Bombay “working class” man. The hundreds and hundreds of honest taxi drivers. The watchman who walked me home, as I cried, shielding me from the rain from where I had been wrongly dropped off by someone else’s parent when I was a child. Those guys who just turn up from nowhere and help you when your car is sliding down a hill. The various “Man Fridays” that upper middle class families in Bombay depend on, the “drivers,” peons, secretaries, who perform all kinds of tasks for various households and businesses. The men who shine shoes, cook dosas on the road, carry your suitcase, bring groceries to your doorstep…
25. Dadar flower market
26. Mahalakshmi temple
27. The Haji Ali Dargah
28. The Taj
29. Coconut water from the Malayali coconut seller on our street
30. Our local paanwalla
31. My friends
32. The women, fearless, outspoken, working and out on the streets long before women of other cities.
33. The NCPA
34. The Race Course
35. The rocks, on which couples in love from all classes congregate at low tide.
36. The fact that it was home for so long
37. VT (hate the name CST)
38. Bombay Central
39. King’s Circle, Matunga

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01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink

02. Swam with dolphins

03. Climbed a mountain

04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive

05. Been inside the Great Pyramid

06. Held a tarantula

07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone

08. Said “I love you” and meant it

09. Hugged a tree

10. Bungee jumped

11. Visited Paris

13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise

14. Seen the Northern Lights

15. Gone to a huge sports game

16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa (watched from the bottom with my father, aged about four, while my mother climbed it)

17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables

18. Touched an iceberg

19. Slept under the stars

20. Changed a baby’s diaper

21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon

22. Watched a meteor shower

25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope

26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment

27. Had a food fight

28. Bet on a winning horse

29. Asked out a stranger

30. Had a snowball fight

31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can

32. Held a lamb (does a kid goat count?)

33. Seen a total eclipse

34. Ridden a roller coaster

35. Hit a home run

36. Danced like a fool and didn’t care who was looking

37. Adopted an accent for an entire day

38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment

39. Had two hard drives for your computer

40. Visited all 50 states

41. Taken care of someone who was drunk

42. Had amazing friends

43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country

44. Watched whales

45. Stolen a sign

46. Backpacked in Europe

47. Taken a road-trip

49. Taken a midnight walk on the beach

50. Gone sky diving

51. Visited Ireland

52. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love

53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger’s table and had a meal with them

54. Visited Japan

55. Milked a cow (On a friend’s farm in Gujarat)

56. Alphabetized your CDs

57. Pretended to be a superhero

58. Sung karaoke

59. Lounged around in bed all day

60. Played touch football

61. Gone scuba diving

62. Kissed in the rain

64. Played in the rain

65. Gone to a drive-in theatre

66. Visited the Great Wall of China

67. Started a business

68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken

69. Toured ancient sites

70. Taken a martial arts class

71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight

72. Gotten married

73. Been in a movie

74. Crashed a party

75. Gotten divorced

76. Gone without food for 5 days

77. Made cookies from scratch (What’s R1 there for?)

78. Won first prize in a costume contest (Dressed as a witch)

79. Ridden a gondola in Venice

80. Gotten a tattoo

81. Rafted the Snake River

82. Been on a television news program as an “expert”

83. Gotten flowers for no reason

84. Performed on stage

85. Been to Las Vegas

86. Recorded music (For my own ears only)

87. Eaten shark

88. Kissed on the first date

89. Gone to Thailand

90. Bought a house

91. Been in a combat zone

92. Buried one/both of your parents

93. Been on a cruise ship

94. Spoken more than one language fluently

95. Performed in Rocky Horror

96. Raised children

97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour

98. Passed out cold

99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country

100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over

101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge

102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking with the windows open

103. Had plastic surgery

104. Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have survived

105. Wrote articles for a large publication

106. Lost over 100 pounds

107. Held someone while they were having a flashback

108. Piloted an airplane

109. Touched a stingray

110. Broken someone’s heart

111. Helped an animal give birth

112. Won money on a TV game show

113. Broken a bone

114. Gone on an African photo safari

115. Had a facial part pierced other than your ears

116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol

117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild

119. Had major surgery

120. Had a snake as a pet

121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon

122. Slept for 30 hours in a 48 hour period

123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. States

124. Visited all 7 continents

125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days

126. Eaten kangaroo meat

127. Eaten sushi

128. Had your picture in the newspaper

129. Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about

130. Gone back to school

131. Parasailed

132. Touched a cockroach

133. Eaten fried green tomatoes

134. Read The Iliad and The Odyssey

135. Selected one “important” author who you missed in school, and read

136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating

137. Skipped all your school reunions

138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language

139. Been elected to public office

140. Written your own computer language

141. Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream

142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care

143. Built your own PC from parts (that’s what A does, not me)

144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn’t know you

145. Had a booth at a street fair

146. Dyed your hair

147. Been a DJ

148. Shaved your head

149. Caused a car accident

150. Saved someone’s life

Anyone who wants to do this tag, please feel free to take it up and leave a link in the comments!

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1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people, and acknowledge the person who tagged you .

The book I happened to pick up is Devi, Goddesses of India, edited by John Stratton Hawley and Donna Wulff. Page 123 is in the chapter on Radha, by Donna Wulff. In this chapter she talks, among other things, about Rupa Gosvami’s plays and his portrayal of Radha.

It is significant that the absolute for Rupa is not a metaphysical principle but an emotion; it is with such love, and not with brahman, that unity is sought. Radha, as love embodied, is thus the supreme avenue of religious realisation.

The love of Radha and Krishna is a subtle interplay of freedom and commitment, spontaneity and constancy.

I tag:
Silent One
Terri
Shyamala
Planet Halder if the baby hasn’t arrived yet. I still owe her a what’s in my fridge tag. Being lazy with the camera!
30in2005 who never answers tags.

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