We were asked to write a story in our Communications skills lecture beginning with 'IF ONLY. Before I realized I had a list of if onlies that sounded maudlin and gloomy. As if having a professor hell-bent on making you write, and snooping around to check on you wasn't gloomy enough.
I decided to be positive and modified the list to the extent that now it’s completely different from the one it originally took root from. The only common factor is that it begins with ’I’. After all, its all about me.....;)
I like.......
I like it when it's still dark in the mornings when I am on my way to the college. Nothing beats the serenity and tranquility of early morning darkness when everyone and everything is lost deep in the lairs of slumber.
I like it when I can switch the AC on in the middle of winter and wrap myself up in a blanket and go to sleep like there is no tomorrow. Come to think of it I like it when I have access to the AC 365 days a year.
I like it when my hands are hennaed and we are having chicken for dinner since it invariably means my Dad or my brother will take turns feeding me since my Mom is a vegetarian.
I like it when I dread the walk to the railway station on a hot afternoon and suddenly the sun decides to hide behind a cloud.
I like it when I hope for a lecture to be cancelled and cancelled it is.
I like it when people spell and pronounce my name right. Don’t ask me why but I simply like it.
I like it when the watchman becomes beneficent and lets us have water for a few extra hours on a Sunday because it means I get to sing under the shower and not bother myself with a bucket and mug.
I like it when everyone has to go to work but I get to sleep late since I am the only one having a holiday.
I like it when everyone tries to put my baby cousin to sleep and she doesn’t but within five minutes of my trying the same she nods off. {The secret is my singing. Do I hear the Indian Idol guys at my door?}
I like it when an outing that my friends and I have been planning for months; actually materializes since most of our plans that includes me never do.
I like it when some stranger I see daily but don’t really know smiles at me and then I smile back. Before we know we are ‘smiley friends’.
I like the fact that I have come across a lot of horrible,
exacting, self centered, rude and disgusting people; and I like it even better that I get to spend a lot of time with them, since it helps me appreciate with full intensity the wonderful people who come into my life no matter for how short or long a duration.
I like it that my i-pod has songs belonging to 6 different languages and I can speak only 3 of them fluently. The rest I just sing along with.
I like the fact that nowadays exams mean not having to worry about Mathematics.
I like the fact that I completed two main public exams and only have 1 more left to go while my brother and cousins haven’t finished the first one yet.
I like my unusually large feet - makes shoe-shopping a breeze; always pick up the snazziest pair available in my size which is almost never.
I like it that I get to live in two countries simultaneously even though 300 out of 365 days it puts me in a conundrum that I find difficult to come out of.
I like it that I’ve never seen snow in real life. Just gives me another reason to visit a foreign country.
I like it when my students at my place of social work ask me why I didn’t turn up for a day or two although my initial response is to remind them who the teacher is.
I like surprises, good ones where I am the center of attraction. No wonder I hardly get any.
A cool breeze on a hot day is something I like. The same stands for a single rose that survives for days in just a glass of water.
When someone tells me that I am neither fat nor thin but am just perfect, I like it a lot.
I like playing ‘house’ with my little cousins. { I have a huge stack of cooking toys}
I like it when my brother makes a mistake in French when I teach him since it means I get to smack him on the head.
I like it that the girl sitting next to me in the train is trying to look at this as I write it.
I like the smell of wet earth during the first monsoons before it turns into disease infested slush.
I like Josh Hartnett, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Channing Tatum, Ranbir Kapoor, Imran Khan, The Jonas Brothers, Hugh Jackman, Patrick Dempsey, James Marsden, George Clooney etc etc etc{ toooo many to puthere;)}........
But I LOVE my Father and my Brother.
I like it when people in my family get married since I get to dress up on the wedding.
When a random stranger’s angelic baby bestows a toothless, drooling, pure as love grin on me I like it a lot.
I like it when people I like address me by my nickname or as sugar, darling, sweetheart etc.
When my mom and dad are around me I like it a lot because then there is always someone to give me a hug and a kiss.
I like bikes. The ones I like look great in the showroom and not on my bank balance.
I like it that others love my hair.
I like writing and receiving letters and I like it when I am the first to call up my best friend to wish her at midnight on our birthday.
I like the sound of pen on paper, crunching of dry leaves, breathing of a sleeping baby and laughter full of mirth and glee.
I like the feeling of peace that overcomes me when I tell the truth, do the right thing, be kind to someone and when I write and when I pray.
I secretly like receiving gifts.
The fact that this is longer than I expected it to be and is proving to be inexhaustible is something I like.
I like the fact that this Valentine’s day I finally learnt to love myself.
Yours liking the fact that you’re reading this
Falak