10 Things About Me You Probably Didn’t Know
1. I got bitten by the book bug when I was two. My mom used to get books from the library and every weekend, we’d snuggle up on bed, my head resting on her chest, the book in front of us, as my mom read aloud to me. Noddy, by Enid Blyton used to be my favourite.
2. My favourite toys as a kid were G.I.Joes and so I wanted to be a mercenary captain when I was around ten. That changed soon.
3. In the seventh grade, I read my mom’s old genetics textbook and decided I wanted to work in that field. I trained to be a molecular biologist and worked in a tuberculosis research centre for a year — and completely lost all interest in working as a researcher. The repetitiveness of the experiments with little success (technical reason — gene expressed in the membrane instead of being produced in bulk, so I couldn’t produce enough to analyse the receptor structure) was something I couldn’t handle. My boss didn’t care if I stayed or left, so I did. Sometimes, I think I left too hastily, that I should have persevered…
4. I love music and almost always have something on when I’m working. My taste is eclectic. I’m also tone-deaf and cannot carry a tune to save my life. So, I sing aloud when I drive — no one to traumatise, you see :-)
5. I’m an introvert and need my quiet time to recharge. Of course, this is seen as the weirdest possible behaviour in the world and my family constantly bombards me with questions and “chats” about how I should socialise more. Sigh!
6. I’m also what everyone calls a workaholic. I work as an IT business analyst and I love my job. Every client, every process is different and it is so much fun trying to find the perfect solution for them.
Once, I got so tired of my family telling me that I work too much and I’m way too stressed, that I decided to prove them wrong. I monitored my stress levels over the course of three months. At that time, I was in a project where the work proceeded in a sinus rhythm — a few weeks of solid work and then a week or two of little to no work. Lo behold! To everyone’s surprise except mine, my stress levels were way into the green zone when I was busy and in the yellow-red zone when there was no work, but I still had to be in office. Eventually, this was chalked up to my weirdness.
7. I craft jewellery, mainly for me and three of my favourite cousins. It takes me in a different creative direction than writing and the change of pace has many times, given me more writing ideas. Here are a few I made recently. The first two are made of paper and the second is beads.
8. I started sewing because ready-made garments rarely used to fit me. I’m 5'8" with very long legs. The longest pants I could find always rested above my ankle. Nowadays, we have extra-length pants in western wear, but Indian wear — no way! So, I make my own — it’s fun as I get to play around with different fabrics and patterns and I get a unique look :-)
9. Military science fiction was my favourite genre in my early twenties. I still have a soft spot for it. It sometimes doesn’t make sense and there are certain ones with quite a bit of misogyny (which I stay away from), but on the whole, I love it — the alien planets, the descriptions of the weapons and tactics used, the sheer scale of the space operas. Corny, right? But after devouring literature in my teens, I think it was a great palate cleanser.
10. For someone who writes a lot about love and relationships, I’ve been only in two relationships. The first was a raging, emotionally abusive, insecure mess who I left after he hit me the first time. In the second, we were more friends than lovers and it ended amicably. Observation makes up the bulk of my work ;-)
Tagging a few more. No pressure to play along, but c’mon! It’d be fun! :-) Kathy Jacobs, Tamyka Bell, Dewi, Heath ዟ, Zev, Elizabeth Helmich, Tommy Paley
