The middle name tag

I have been tagged by Moppet's mom, Sue and Usha.

Getting straight to the point, the three rules to be followed are:
a) The rules must be mentioned in the beginning of the tag.

b) You must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of your middle name. If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had.

c) At the end of your blog post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog. - I am going to ignore this one. Please.

Middle name, yes I have one.

S - Susan, thatz my middle name. 4 out of 6 girls in the family have the same middle name. Just like Moppet's Mom said its not available in a single record except for the baptism certificate but I love it. Only my granny called me/us by that name. By the pattern of it and by some unwritten rule in the mid seventies all 'Chinnamma' and 'Shoshamma' and 'Achamma' could be 'Susan', so out of the 6 girls in the family, 4 of us were Susan. When we used to visit granny during summer holidays, she used to call us by our christened names as those were easy for her(she often wondered loud who would name their kids like my father did). She could shout Susan and 1 of the 4 would atleast respond.

U - Upma. I have hated upma ever since I can remember. Many people have tried tricking me into eating it telling me they make the best upma and I have only been polite to swallow 2 spoon fulls(anything more means I must love you too much). P loves Upma, ofcourse the caveat is "like my mom makes it". An absolute lazy bone when it comes to cooking, I realized Upma can be the quickest & simplest breakfast or evening snack. Ever since the enlightenment, I have tried making Upma for breakfast & evening snacks, only for the tables to turn. He hates it and I eat it telling myself "It isn't bad at all, afterall its the quickest thing to make".

S - sixth standard - That is when Dad bought me my first and only bicycle. I learnt it by myself, in the scorching heat after school. So I probably took the longest too, almost 6-8 months. For the next 4 years the cycle was an integral part of my life. Many school time memories revolve around 7 friends cycling around the small town in Gujarat where I spent my childhood.

A - Anniversary Gift. This is not about mine but mom and dad's.The first gift we ever bought them. I think I must be 10 and my sisters 8 years old. The house used to be a riot most days, most times, between the three of us or my mom and my sisters. It was absolutely given that we were to be treated well with the rod for our mis-behaviour almost everyday. Finally totally exhausted mom came up with a bright plan. 10 paise per well-behaved day. We were given a collection box and we managed to collect Rs 2 or 3 in about 6 months time. As a anniversary gift we bought them a Mother Mary's poster for that money. The excitement of secretly exchanging the 'chillar' for a crisp note, buying a gift and keeping it a secret and gift wrapping it at night was all new and lots of fun.

N - Nana - My maternal grandfather. If anybody were to ask me, what is your earliest memory, the one that comes to my mind is me and my grandfather fishing in the pond near my mom's place. I holding the fishing net at one end of the pond and he at the other end. I was something between 2.5 - 3 years. When I narrated it, I wasn't sure if it was a dream, my fantasy or if it was for real. Many people at my mom's place are amazed at my memory. Though there is a lot more to that sketchy image that I do not remember, it seems we caught a fish and then I and a cousin fought over having the whole thing all alone. I have an elephant's memory yet I forget a lot of small things & huge ones my sisters remember. Such memory leakage!!!

Tag is open to anyone to pick if you haven't done it already.