Sep 17, 2007

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! :)

11 comments:

The King Centaur... said...

Wow man.. thought 1999 was miserable for me.. Yours is much worse.. poor you... Yup.. you do have a lot of admirers where ever you go.. Dont you? (Example: Asan College)

Tsk-tsk-tsk.. nevrtheless, after being paid back, I accept one thing. Life is so carefree when a Child. I d give anything in my life to go back to my childhood. Few Best years in every one's life. Esp in yours cause of the Bahrain thingy.. I repeat again and again, now we have evry damn thing available in Bahrain rite here.. So go and get it..

Weighing machine - The worst instrument to demotivate a person.. Dont look at it..

Go Nuts..

Cheers..
Technomaniac

JANE JEYAKUMAR said...

Gulf kids bak in India undoubtedly reserve the word ' home' for that beautiful appartment on the n'th floor, near a super/hyper market,dotting the desert sands of the world's best oilwellz.. Mannnnn,.. Ma childhood rokd only cos i lived n breathed KFC burgers, pastries, oman chips, SAUSAGES n went on roller skates n played cricket n badminton with the building kids. awesummmmmm life.. School Songs, being a part of the band,7--year puppy-luvvvv, and dad teachin me were like wunder years..

The Gulf, for us, epitomises innocence and all that was ice, candy and nice :) nostalgic babeeee..

mwuaah- a post from the heart... n yehhhh we had no respite from the bahrain-braggyn, but yehhhhh meee used to it[:D] loadsa loveeee...

Winds of Change said...

hey hey!

first thingz first...evryonez life wudve been awesum in the year 1984...cuz i wuz born then.....lol!! newayz...hey wen u wrote bout the long glass doors in ur hall,dno y n i dnt even know if u remember this...bt i jus got reminded of this day at i.t.m(sorry to compare the 2!)...wen there wuz this room facing the barren land bang opp to cognizant ...it had jus glass all over n i remember u describin ur Bahrain house n stf..... show off! haha...hmmm...dats ok....u didnt hav gr8 ppl like me thr....so!...n wen i think bt the year 1999, all that came to my mind wuz studyin for 10th board exams if im not rong....n i absolutely H.A.T.E dat period of my life....so...no comments!

nobody(haahahhahahahhahahahhahahha)

lotsa luv
u kno who

Preeti said...

technomaniac...u cn sign off wit ur name its ok...wudnt hurt...hahahaha...

y xactly did the admirers part come up here??? :P hehe...

n well i knw we get every damn ting available in bahrain here, bt we wudnt gt bahrain itself nw, wud we???n nothin cn beat sittin on my sofa in my livin room n havin an icecream...tatz bliss baby...

janie wanie...i totally knw u understnd wat im tryin to say...tho im still the scape goat when it comes to the gulf braggin sessions...hehe...i forgot the sausages n the badminton n the silly buildin games...amazin childhood...rite???

n nobody...the 1st ting to strike me frm ur comment is tat...ur 1 yr junior to me!!!!hehe...cuz when u wr busy grillin for ur 10th boardz, i ws in the 11th,eatin milky way icecream bunkin another day of skool wit malar!hehe...

luv ya guyz...

Anonymous said...

Preeti,

Never mind my gargantuan memory... lol. There are more troubles than good things, which issue thereof.

I liked that part of the tag (especially) where you say that you were happy not 'cuz' you had found a job or you were in love, but none of these things happened. I find that a simple - nevertheless profound - summing of childhood, which can never be got back. Trust me, despite the lack of love and breakups in my life (people find me bizarre when I say that I have 'just' proposed once and been turned down!) I would take childhood anytime.

Cheerio!

Anonymous said...

I think that I'd be making a total understatement here when I say that I know what you mean.

Inidan fine arts programs....hanging out back stage for dramas... school buses... home...Isa Town...and defineily Umm-Al Hassam. Theres just too much out there to call just my past. I dont my parents notice...bUT I still refer to my house in Bahrain as my veedu. Some things just dont change.
They cant.

Here;s to Bahrain. *wipes of tears of joy and drops the glass of wine my mistake. Clumsy me :-P *

:)
Love!

Jagannath Chakravarty said...

Good topic to bring up preetz!...fond memories of the huge amount of childhood we spent there!

What a place!...whenever i meet someone from bahrain online or offline...it fills me with an air of memories...kinda makes me gaze into the past for a while..thinkin of the good ol days...in classes, isa town, the hundreds of school buses that line outside while going home!...man!...that was so awesome!...the three canteens, the huuuuuuge auditorium,soccer field, playground...wow!...the list just goes on and on!

Whenever i used to go to india on vacations, used to proclaim so loudly to my relatives...that we had air conditioners in our classrooms! :D

Good ol days!...after that, it was mumbai for me as was chennai for u....but now...i have the huge load of missing mumbai and bahrain...

People sometimes address a person as " he left us an impression or a mark" .....but what i say..." bahrain left us a mark" ....a permanent, but beautiful drawing in our minds! :)

Preeti said...

mayth & jag....2 constant figures of bahrain in my life...servin as reminders for all those crazy things we'v done as kids...im sooo glad we'v kept in touch n cn reminisce every time...!

noone here understands my 'true' feelings abt bahrain witout assumin tat my talks border on braggin...hehe...wich is y im soooo glad u guyz hv written wat uv written....hopefully thn the numbskulls wud understand!hehehe...

jag...i hd to literally BEG u tis time to read my blog...n thn it ws another session of beggin for u to comment on it...thnx! :P hehe...

Anonymous said...

White cars! Aah! Those were the days! A family car just had to be white, dinnit? But jeez Preeti, Chennai ain't thaat bad.

And even if you may not be able to appreciate most of things that we grew up with here through the 90's, do check this guy's post on the 90's tag out. Awesome man!

Preeti said...

well diya....(dno if tatz ur name,bt tatz watz displayed here)

lemme tell u...im a diehard chennai luver...my frenz n ppl who knw me wud tell u so as well...for ne1, their childhood is filled wit memories-silly and profound tat cn never b forgotten.....n so when i mention wat i cherish most abt my then-life, it in noway means tat im puttin down or syain tat life in chennai is bad...!

everyone hs a rite to their own memories...so does santosh, so do i...tis isnt really a mattr of whoz rite or wrng...!

thnx for ur comment :)

SANTHOSH said...

We have something in common here : I don't know who Diya is too - but she's been reading my blog for quite some time now (which of course means she's highly intelligent ;))

...and I think I've also told in my post pretty much what you've replied to Diya in the comments - "When asked to compare two entities to come up with the nice things of only one of them, the other always comes out looking bad."....

Nice blog though, your's. Why don't you write a bit more often?