To be continued ...whenever

My friend Tiger:

I was about 10 years old and an obsessive dreamer. I always wore socks that were of different lengths, “high-lo” was my sense of style. I went to a convent school for ‘pure girls’ who would blossom into ‘pure women’, whatever that meant. I don’t think we had a choice in the matter though. If you’re in, well you turned out pure with a life-long warranty. The school where I spent many years blossoming deserves a separate write up.

Back to my little ten year old self.

I always wore a sweater over my uniform as I thought it was the ugliest thing ever made. It was a gooo-ey green colored pinafore, the length of which had to be 3 inches below the knee. I never understood the length rule as the uniform was ugly enough and didn’t need anything else to appear severely unattractive. The sweater was a dark-bottle-green cardigan, this came as a miracle to me. Indeed I had been saved. I always wore the sweater all-school-day-all-year-round thinking that any part of the uniform that was not visible to the naked eye was worth hiding. Other people who saw me in the sweater “buttoned up” might have a different take on the subject.

I had a ton of friends growing up both real and imaginary. This scared my mom and impressed my dad. I was his little Einstein. I would come back home from school around 4pm everyday. Playtime started around 4:01pm. I would hear my friends playing downstairs, all other sounds of my mom yelling-change your uniform-would be ignored for years to come. I would run down the stairs and hop over to the playground.

Without getting into details, I was quite a tom boy. I hated playing house-house, I enjoyed playing games where I was captain or had to run a lot. I was one of the boys which meant I got treated like one of the boys and looked and smelled like one of the boys.

I would come home only when it was time to eat. All the running used to make me hungry. I had and still have the appetite of the ten hungry llamas. My mom dragged me into the shower before letting me eat. This was the only time I would listen to her. Then she would complain to my dad about how nasty of a kid I was. She would say –“why can’t this girl not play in mud???— followed by ewwww, look at her nails!!

My dad would say-don’t do it next time! And then when my mom wasn’t watching he’d give me a proud smile acknowledging the fact that my nails had gotten dirty when I’d thrown sand in one of the boy’s faces.

One summer, like many other summers I went to Mumbai for my vacation. I really did not have a problem with this as all my other friends went on vacation too. I thought there was no way they were going to replace me as team captain during that time. If they did, then, they would do so at their own risk. I left with a calm heart.

My granddad lived in a small suburb of Mumbai called Kalyan. This was where I was going to spend a month waiting for an unknown cousin to get married. My mom and dad had cleverly hidden this fact from me. After I found out, I thought to myself, that it was the worst thing that could happen to me. How could I go to a wedding of all things, it meant I had to behave. I was heartbroken. I looked at my dad and I thought to myself that he would stick by me if I happen to punch a distant cousin. I smiled.

This was the first time I was going to stay at my granddad’s place for a really long time. It was a nice apartment complex with about a hundred thousand tiny apartments bundled together with concrete. I was immediately claustrophobic. Also I knew that he had two sons who were older and stronger than I was. This only added to my discomfort.

The living room door was wide open. I thought what idiots, what if there was a burglar around. Then again I thought it was a wedding. I entered a room full of old men and their gaudily dressed incessantly chattering wives. I was forced to touch everyone’s feet. A custom I still don’t understand. I did it only because I thought I had to do it once, like I had haggled and agreed upon with my mom. Of course, this along with all other things told to me when I was ten was not true.

After all the back breaking rituals my mom finally introduced me to my cousin brother. I thought he was somewhat weird looking. I told my mom-his pants are too high!. My mom quickly gave me a stern look and then quickly changed the subject. Then I thought to punish me she left me standing there with my cousin. I had to smile. He smiled back and said hi with a drawl. I thought he was dumb and I could easily overpower him, if not by strength at least by wit. I was comfortable.

I said I was the captain of my cricket team and I could throw a mean spin ball. He said he had fish. I thought he sure was dumb.

He started talking about all sorts of fish. Fighter fish-the meanest of them all. Guppies-the ones with butterfly tails. Kissing Fish-Eww-the one’s that kiss. I stood there trying hard not to be fascinated by his know how. I said hah have you ever seen any of these fish you are talking about? I was sure these creatures did not exist. He said, yes, and that he had a fish tank full of them. He started running towards what appeared to be his room.

I ran into his room, following closely behind him. By instinct I had a strong urge to overtake him and beat him to the race. But then I thought maybe he wouldn’t show me the fish tank. So I followed him, a close second.

What I saw next completely blew me away. I thought the fish tank was the best invention in the universe ever. There was even an oxygen tank in the fish tank itself. I quickly said O2 = oxygen, so he knew that I knew what I was talking about. I was intimidated by the fact that he knew so much about fish. I had to show him I knew a lot of chemistry-the real stuff. He told me a lot about fish, a lot of which I cannot remember but I remember it was things I had never heard of before. At this point I was won over. I thought he was the smartest guy in the world. And the high pants, only a sign of someone with high IQ. Suddenly he was cool.

I remember looking at the fish for days. The wedding was no longer important. I would spend hours talking to my cousin, about fish. I had to find out everything he knew, so one day I could get my very own bigger, better, fish tank.