I was tagged by Sechang, and here is a list of five things people probably don't know about me. Statutory Warning : they aren't particularly insightful. However, if we are in the same room, and you wish to get rid of me, some of this, judiciously brought up, might prove useful.

[I] The first competition I ever participated in, at the age of 6 or 7, was a Fancy Dress one. I showed up as Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India. As the years went by and my awareness of gender grew keener, I suppressed all photographic evidence of the event.

[II] When I was a kid, my father declared that I ought to learn Latin, a language he was, and is, familiar with. At the time, it ate into my free time, and I never got far beyond the declension of rosa - rosa, rosae, rosam ad nauseam. I did realize though that Ars longa, Vita brevis and Tempus fugit didn't signify what I imagined they meant. Now I wish I had applied myself a bit more. I learnt, and came to love, Sanskrit at school, but cannot speak it any more. Poetry has never sounded quite as lyrical in an other language.

[III] I am asked sometimes how I acquired the quaint ability to touch type (Update : I type at 97 words per minute, with 1 mistake, according to http://labs.jphantom.com/wpm/). Desktops turned up in my school in the mid '80s. Due to the small number available, the school announced a test to select students with access. I heard that the test involved reacting to an alphanumeric character that pops up on screen by hitting the right key (yeah, pre-historic, not to mention irrelevant), and ensured my qualification through a typewriting crash course. Talk about keyboard shortcuts.

[IV] I have been stealth-editing at the Wikipedia. Admittedly, my output is sporadic, but I rather like the work I did on Tatiana Proskouriakoff, Matthew Stirling, and Udvada.

[V] I once gave a speech at a school. As schools go, this one was of the common or garden-variety; yet, as I never fancied myself in the role of He Who Dispenses Paternal Advice, I had fortified myself with suitable quantities of gin. Time seems to have cast a shroud over subsequent events, but I remember connecting, as it were, with the audience. The only part of my speech I do recollect was the way it began -

Boys, I mean ladies and gentlemen and boys, I do not detain you long, but I suppose on this occasion to feel compelled to say a few auspicious words; Ladies - and boys and gentlemen - we have all listened with interest to the remarks of our friend here who forgot to shave this morning ...

Being tagged is fun, but tagging other people is invigorating, so here goes : Ashish, Govind, Malhar, and Vineet.

Tags : fivethings