TAGGED again!

Heya all! I've been caught by the "tagged" bug again. Thanks again Srini. This one is definitely gonna be difficult cuz it warrants a serious twist of my grey and white matter way, way back in time- and trust me, old age has resulted in my memory being slightly, or rather totally, muddled. Yet, an attempt:

1999: Hmmm... Definitely one of the worst years of my life. Left Bahrain, my parents, shawarma and Um-Al-Hassam to come live in Chennai. No, that isn't the bad part. D.A.V is. Thanks to dad and mum, who felt any good student should belong there, I was 'forced' to join the 'all-girls' school. Unimaginable things happened. I flunked most of my papers, never went to school, was one of the 5 'worst' girls in my class, hit my fingers against the ceiling fan (!!!) , had ligament tears in both my ankles AND became BSNL Mylapore's Best Customer cuz of a telephone bill worth 50k [Not kidding ONE bit]. But, I did manage to meet 4 of my best ever friends through those 2 years of hell- Malar, Karpagavalli, Uthra and Akshu (8 years and still going strong, touchwood). And I also did learn the art of independance. Learnt but haven't mastered it. Yet :)

O.K. Now, to make life a lil easier for me, I'm gonna combine all the previous years and make it common:

1990-1998: Life in Bahrain. [For all of you who are tsk-tsk-ing rite now, I am offering you no respite. You will have to go through with this :) :) Feels like it's pay back time!Hahahaha!!]

The happiest period of my life. [From 1984 onwards itself, actually ;)] And happiest not cuz I was in love or cuz I graduated or I got a job or whatever, but happiest cuz all of that didn't happen. I was just a kid. In love with the smaller things in life. Just kept stuffing my face with all the burgers-pizzas-chips-candy-coke-chocolates-icecreams I could ever eat, never once having to worry about the needle on the weighing scale tipping menacingly to the right-growing love handles-slim fit denims-silver dusted kohl or lipgloss. Details evade me, but I just remember being happy- in my tights and tee, weird curly fringe and those big,pink plastic glasses (which,according to my sis, glowed in the dark!) that covered not just my eyes but literally my entire chubby face as well. I cringe everytime I see myself in those snaps and would never, ever show them to anyone. Hehe.

The best part of that memory, more than the food [yes, there is something that is more important!hehe] is my house. Flat # 34, 3rd floow, Al Fadhel building, Um-al-Hassam. I can visualise every single corner of that beautiful home. The new pink carpets we got in our study room. And the amazing way in which the sunlight used to scatter that pink-ness on the white,white walls. Those big, big balcony doors. Wall-to-wall glass that had a view of, well, the roadside (hehe) but yet, the living room used to be brighttttttt every morning.

Our car [White, ofcourse, cuz of my dad] Our bedroom. The people. It was all so good while it lasted. But all good things have to come to an end and thus, 1999 saw the ending of that. Though I did go back twice every year for vacations, nothing was the same again. Annnddddddd, well, I've let it be. I'm just glad I got the chance to have been in that awesome place which would alwayz, alwayz, alwayz be home to us.

P.S: Srini..!!!MAN!!I admire the fact that you remember so, so much. Awesome! :)