There was a time when...

If I ever lose track, this will remind me...

• When I was 14, I shoplifted food products on a daily basis with trusted accomplices.
• I was 6 when I first beat Prince of Persia and within a couple of months I was able to complete it within 20 minutes...reproducibly.
• I enjoyed embroidery when I was 8. My mother approved because she was a broad-minded person.
• I excelled at making rudely-worded parodies of popular Hindi numbers with a partner in crime when I was 13. We are still very proud of it.
• I was goalkeeper for the school football team when I was 9. We lost our first and last game 5-0 and I scored one goal.
• I read my first non-pictorial classic – Moby Dick - when I was 6. I read my last – The Coral Island when I was 11.
• I have wanted to be a teacher/scientist ever since...well actually thats all I've ever wanted to be.
• When I was 13, my 11-year old sister was an inch taller than me and my best friend took special notice of that. I grew in late spurts.
• I learnt what the fear of death was when I turned 8. The Latur earthquake woke me up in the wee hours of the morning and I felt it for a whole 3 minutes.
• When I was 10, neck springs and hand springs took me the effort of dropping a pen. When I had to prove it to my friends at the age of 14...
• When I was 9, I made a superhero character for myself and called it Sharkanian (Shar-cane-yan) because I had pointier canines back then. I had a proper costume with a blue cape and leggings and a mask (modified from Cathay Pacific's original makes). I wore the costume everyday and took particular delight in making a superhero appearance in front of mom's guests. I even wrote and directed a skit to be played at a get-together complete with the background score taken from Danny Elfman's creation for Batman that my dad recorded for me. It was shot down for lack of superpowers and structure in the script.
• My tally of head injuries demanding stitches is 9. I still have the scars and bald spots.
• When I was 7, I regularly beat people up for fun during lunch break. The victims took it quite well. It was our fight club.
• I was quite convinced that I was a good sprinter when I was 15. I raced everyday and clocked 12 seconds. I told the faster runners that I was more of the long distance types.
• I climbed my first tree when I was 6. My parents were very pleased. My previous attempt at climbing was head injury demanding stitches number 2.
• When I was 13, I got inspired by the Parker Brothers and made my own WWE-themed board game that was loosely similar to Dungeons and Dragons. My dad critically acclaimed the effort and said that I should attempt to focus on educational value on my next project.
• I learnt Sindarin when I was 16 just because I wanted to escape to a new world.
• I held a green belt in Taek-won-do when I was 9. I was not the best student.
• I have been wary and fearful of girls ever since the age of 12. I still think that it makes me cool.
• I have never had a tooth cavity that required filling. Until two months ago.
• My most recurring nightmare is being back in SYJC and failing the board exam. Until the age of 17 it was being dragged butt-naked through the dead marshes to Mordor.
• I did not know competition (healthy and unhealthy) until the age of 20.
• I ranked 27^th in the state in a scholarship exam when I was 12. And lost the mark-sheet.
• My dad bought our first car when I was 7. It was by far our coolest car because it was Aquamarine. Every car after that has been white or something duller.
• I fractured my right pinky in school after slipping and falling over water that I spilt myself when I was 11. It was my first and only fracture. I wanted to tell mom that a bus ran over it but muttered the truth and ran to my room in agony. For the next 2 months I learnt to write with two fingers and wrote an exam that way.
• I lost my last three milk teeth when I was 14 on three consecutive days during school hours. The girls laughed at me and my patient orthodontist was relieved that he could get started on fitting my braces.
• When I was 12, I once dreamt of a water-filled glass commentary box and a hole cracked on its bottom side. I woke up and thought over it and mentally derived Toricelli's Theorem. I described it to dad the next morning. His response was that I was already well established and that I should think about finishing my milk.
• I took my first photograph when I was 7 on a National analog 56. It was perfect for the first 5 minutes after which my curious sister succeeded in opening the rear compartment of the camera.
• I first saw the Adam West take on Batman and Robin when I was 8. Even back then I thought it was sad, stupid and funny.
• I learnt to spell my name completely when I was 5. It took me a whole of 15 minutes as I walked home from school with mom.
• I have smashed my nails on every one of my fingers (and 4 toes) and have had them regrow.
• When I was 13, I read the first Harry Potter book because my dad bought it for me from a trip to Hong Kong and liked it. I had no idea it would get this famous right then.
• Back when I was 14, my friends said that they would give me an over to bowl only if I bowled faster. I defended myself by saying that I was a leg spinner, hoping that they wouldn't have noticed my medium pace action and hold on the ball. I didn't get my over. I practiced leg spin for two months after that and returned to bowl a guy out on a wide delivery on my very first ball.
• I made a drawing for a Camlin competition when I was 7. The title was 'What I want to be when I grow up' and the best works were to be put on display in an exhibition. Back then, the only sophisticated job title I knew was training manager since my dad was one. I included the title in my artwork and handed it over and came home and told my parents. They laughed at me in the same fashion that people who know me generally laugh at me. Well then...you know what happened. I got a cert for my artwork and it was put up in the first row of the gallery.
• I learnt to read Tamil when I was 18. It was an entirely solo effort and my study material comprised only of bus labels and movie posters.
• I have read a total of 2 Enid Blyton books so far. After I figured out the sick logic in describing picnic food to young kids, I couldn't enjoy it anymore.
• I made my first seminar with transparencies at the age of 12 for a history class. I had to describe the works of Raja Ram Mohun Roy and dad refused to print photographs on a transparency for me so I exercised my drawing skills.
• When I was 13, I once chose to jump off the first floor to convince my friends that I was badass. An audience of 6 peers came to watch and waited for half hour as I was making all my mental preparations from the ledge that I was to jump off of. Finally one of the audience members, came up to the ledge and slid off its end and made a perfect landing after which I clambered slowly off the ledge and let go of it and landed. I assure you that still is as badass as it gets.

- Aamchi Jeeva, Aamcha Vela