Tagged with Gratitude

I am starting to like this whole idea of tagging. That removes one burden of my chest, choosing a topic my family can read, ( that is without getting enquiring phone calls from the rest of the family).

Gratitude: Feeling or showing that you value or appreciate something that has been done for you.

What’s coming up next is a much rehearsed harangue .Something which I have been practicing from childhood for my Oscar night. I have left out little additions like Woody Allen and Walt Disney. So in the future if/when I win an Academy award or a desi version of it. (That would be the National Award and not Filmfare), you can go grab a sandwich while I start the “Thank you” speech, for you would have heard it all before. And Bullsh thanks for tagging me (in all your laziness). I am grateful.

Now for the listed 8 . I start with what I refer to them as, their relationship with me, Followed by blahdablahdablah…. I use the word teach in a million places, cause teaching somehow is related to gratitude.

NUMBER 1

UMMA: Rightly guessed that’s my mom.

You have a million reasons to thank your mom . And I am planning to say almost every conspicuous point here. So here goes

1. Essentially for having faith, and for building the same in me. She almost never advocates her beliefs, but somewhere it’s inspiring enough to seep in.
2. For letting me be me, as different as I am from her. Though she half heartedly tries to change me into the conventional daughter. The very fact that her effort is half hearted explains that she is ok with who I am.
3. For all the sleepless nights she has spent taking care of an ill me.
4. For cooking delicious food each and every single day
5. For always rising above and against circumstance and being the strongest lady I have ever met
6. For imparting in me the 1% gene that makes me normal

NUMBER 2

Ikkikka : My one and only elder brother

1. For, at a very young age, killing my arrogance. I donno what kind of a self obsessed arrogant devil I would have become if he hadn’t tamed me down with his timely pinches and thrashings.
2. For dropping me at every place I had to go (read tuitions), irrespective of what time of the day it was and irrespective of his own busy schedule. This is something he keeps on saying I would never have done if I were him.
3. For being a cool friend all through childhood and a big brother all through my adulthood (that would be the past three years)
4. For, in spite of all the embarrassments I have put him through, almost never throwing it back at my face.

NUMBER 3

Vappa: My Daddy

1. For never ever putting me under any pressure to perform. And for making my mom believe the same.
2. For not scolding me on the day I bought back my brand new hero pen with a broken nib. [It was the first day of my pencil to pen transformation, and my dad had given me this hero pen]. He brushed it off without a single word of reprimanding. This should be why I still am utterly careless. But this is also why I have never lied even once for the fear of getting punished.
3. For making me read tough journals at a very young age.
4. For the 99% of who I am. Be it good bad or ugly.

NUMBER 4

Rakhi

1. For showing me what it means to be humble. 2. For striving me to do better in every aspect of life. 3. For dragging me, that particular night, to Ernakulam for my company recruitment. A teary and completely broken down me* would never have, without her persuasion, even attended the interview. And so I am indebted to her for my job and hence indebted to her life long. 4. For instilling an undying (well deserved) faith in my mom that I am safe if she’s around. 5. For understanding me as weird as I am.

NUMBER 5

Amma: (My maternal grandmother)

1. For being the only one in the family I have ever wanted to impress.
2. For keeping her standards so high that I work harder to meet them.
3. For showing me what the word capable means
4. For teaching me that freedom is what we earn for ourselves and that you can’t blame anyone/anything for it.

NUMBER 6

Atha: (My maternal grandfather)

1. For teaching me the glory of mystery.
2. For making me realize there is something called matrimonial bliss
3. For proclaiming that silence never means submission

NUMBER 7

Friends

These are God send creatures who emerge from no where at some place or time to help us, guide us and just to be with us. I cannot help mentioning few names.

1. Reeba : For being the first to make me feel worthy.
2. Abilash : For being the most inspiring classmate
3. Lavanya: For tolerating the kiddish pain that I am and yet for taking care of me.
4. KC: For just being KC
5. Rajeswari : For the affection and advice
6. Sreekanth : For showing me the bigger picture.
7. Satish: For always always being there
8. Prabhanjan: For keeping me on my feet during every form of trekking
9. Amit: For teaching me that sincerity is the truest of all emotions

And now for the most important one

GOD:

1. FOR à NOT making me the first born of a Somalian farmer
2. FOR à NOT making me the illegitimate offspring of a lovelorn couple who end up throwing me on the road or railway track.
3. FOR à Providing me with everything that’s best for me. Though not necessarily what I want.
4. FOR à Letting me have faith in him.

So that’s my harangue.

I tag Deepak sir, Parasuram , Arun and Deepti.

* Why I was heartbroken. Read this.