Bag it, tag it, sell it to the butcher at the store…

I’ve just discovered one of the - dubious - joys of becoming part of an online community. You are liable to get tagged. N having left this cryptic message - ‘you have been tagged’ - as a comment on a post of mine, I had to Sherlock my way into figuring out what it meant. Don’t snigger (yet; that’s still to come). New entrants to new universes have a tough time figuring out local topography and language. Simply, it means this:

  • Say who tagged you
  • Say eight things about yourself
  • Tag 6 people

Ouch.

1. I cry. While this may seem trivial, it’s not. It involves masses of tissue, sundry hankies, towels in an emergency and loo rolls on an austerity drive. Any form of sentimentality - yes, even a Karan Johar film (N, you empathise?) - can start me off. And keep me going. I have been known to sniff even during moving moments of The Mask (what moving moments? er…).

2. Sare Jahan Se Achcha makes me cry. Hey, I’m on a roll!

3. I have a strange and macabre relationship with water. I nearly drowned in a tank (aka having my first swimming lesson) when I was six years old, swallowed too much coloured water during Holi when I was eight (and made my parents spend a harrowing night at hospital) and slid, many years later, into the Cherwell (a naala that passes for a river in Oxford). A result of clambering over lichen-covered branches overhanging the whatchamacallit. The English rats that I disturbed were not amused.

4. I was called Sosyo by loving friends at school. I was called other things too, but that’s a story for another time. Sosyo, because it was a strange new drink on the market at about the same time I joined school in Bangalore. The drink didn’t last long. I stayed strange.

5. I have only just realised the range and depth of my relationship with water. See pts 1 -4. [Is this cheating the tag?]

6. I am addicted to the news. Seriously. It’s not a pleasant addiction. I’m checking into rehab soon (fine, call it Goa if you will).

7. I find it hard to think things up about myself that might be remotely interesting to others.

8. Ditto.

I will now proceed to destroy domestic bliss forever by tagging Ashwin. And luckily from a distance, Mukul, Rohan and Dents.

* Update: I’ve been informed by reliable sources that this is only 4 people I’m tagging, not 6. Guess what? I can’t count either.