Couldn’t not.
Been tagged by Sash 🙂 And been instructed likewise by the Facebook Group 🙂
And… When there is a spate of confessions that our High Priestess on SAGS, IHM is egging on Wordfully and Wordlessly; and multitudes simply revel in sins they have gleefully and willfully committed; I am now giving in to temptation.How could I not! I have EVE to thank, don’t I? For me she is the Awesome SAGS 🙂 (no blasphemy here, honest!!) Well, she was told not to eat the fruit, and being a typical SAGS, very unlike a Gender Stereotype, she had to go and eat it. Adam, well, he was a good boy; and faithfully followed her out! I like to think of that as being the first time, perhaps, Stereotyping, if at all intended with the package, got thrown a brick at!!!
I guess I do not need to go into the details of the tag, but since I have tagged others, I feel it is my duty to do so 😀
Bless me, O Others, for I have sinned… 😀
- I am (not was, please note :D) a tomboy. I sometimes do not understand why they have to say “Tom””Boy”. Lol! Double underscore a variant in the gene? I grew up with boisterous brothers, and their gang. I played gilli danda, lagori, Cricket (Darned good at pace, I was!), Hockey, Basketball, Throwball (Now that is more girly, but I loved that too 🙂 🙂 ) I still join in the Sports day stuff at school, cheer wildly and jump about, and egg the girls, especially, to go on and out and run and play and all… And watch sports channels. And discuss the latest on the EPL, Champions League, or even the WC, with the class 🙂 You need nothing more to bring zip into the grammar classes 😀
- Our neighbours would constantly tell my mother to get me out of shorts, during my school days. In Bangalore, way back then, we used to have rather conservative Mallu and Kannadiga neighbours. To give her her due, she did try. I didn’t listen! :P! Even now, at almost 50, in the back of the beyond of the backwaters land, in the small suburb of a semi rural city I live in, my favourite clothes, jeans, is what I wear most often. Not to school though. Dress code, you see. So I can’t 🙂 You can, without any further help, imagine the the expressions I am met with. For a long while, I did not wear trousers; but, the past couple of years have released inhibition, and I am glad I sin 😀 :D!
- I drive. And well. And I am darned proud of it :D! It’s been, what almost 30 years on, and I still love driving. That’s the car.
- I cycle. I have gone a bit further. It was a Luna, in college. A Kinetic Honda later. Then a Honda Activa. Then a few of my discs kinda prolapsed and extruded. Got grounded. 😦 Then, the resurrection 😛 😛 ! First Born allowed me to ride his Thunderbird. And that, let me tell you, folks, was the bestestestest!! The Nirvana of an auto aficionado! Can’t wait for Second Born to give me real time lessons, on it. A moped? Ha!!! I do BIKES!!!!
- I know where I am going, and what I am doing, especially on drives! Can navigate and lead, and find routes better than locals. I discovered that, here in my hometown. I have been, since, giving tips to localites on how to get to places easier and quicker 🙂 And I’m actually a transplant 😀
- Need to have a curtain rod fixed? Or perhaps your plug is broken? No, don’t call me … 😆 .. but these are things I have found to be very interesting, and so got dad to teach me, a long time ago. What he did not, I figured out for myself soon enough! Most of this kind of work at home I do myself.
- I stand with and supervise workers, especially those who come to do electrical or painting or construction work, and constantly give them suggestions :P! And men here, as Shail has said in her fantastic piece on SAGS, are rather dumbstruck by it. They always ask for SAAR. I tell them I’m the SAAR!! I even do a bit of painting, window grills, frames, and patches, after they have left so that they dont waste time the next day 😛 :P! Am planning to paint the upstairs of my house, the interior, myself. Long term plan for the vacation!
- I read. And read. And read. Is that supposed to be something women don’t do, or like or have the time for, perhaps? I do!
- I don’t like to cook much. When I feel like it, I do cook up a storm, but usually, am not a kitchen person :D! There’s food, and there’s FOOD. Not the be all and end all of life, for me!
- I am net savvy.Something very very very few women around here are anyway. And it confounds the service persons who come home, when they have to deal with me, and not anyone else. I tell them about the problem, what I think has gone kaput, and what can be done. On occasion I open up the CPU, pull out the RAM, clean it and put it back, when I hear the long piiiiinnnnnnnnnngggg noise, and the monitor does not switch itself on 😀
Is that a ten? *Hi5* to all the other sinners. Actually, it’s not the non conformist in me that I am proud of. In fact it is not about not conforming. It is more about being who you are, man or woman, doing what you like, you love, really, and not thinking about, Oh! Should I?
There was a time, when I did, and conformed to the “T”… but I am glad I found my old self again, and now more than ever for I have found company of so many and that is such a comfort. Contrarily, even if there weren’t, I’d still be comfortable, because I am me, finally 🙂 🙂
And with all this; I still love wearing sarees; mundu vesthi (that is set mundu)– (no, that is not me in the picture, just one I googled 😀 )a very very traditional Keralite two piece mundu, worn like a sort of half saree :); I love embroidery and mirror work; I do mehendi designs on hands and feet for those who like to wear it 🙂 🙂 I love to pamper myself at the beauty salon… 🙂 🙂 I love the feminine, coochy coo me too 🙂 🙂 I’m a die hard Romantic, who weeps when she sees romantic comedies even 😀 :D!
I have sinned. And all the better for it 🙂 🙂 Now can I place this on my mantlepiece?
Oh, I need to tag others! Almost everyone I know here has, with great enthusiasm and obvious pleasure done it! So I am doomed to wear blue pants! (I love the idea though!!!)
Still, let me see….
Soumya, Poonam, Aareet, Venkat (who has just started blogging 🙂 ) , Praveen SR , Indygurl (even though she is busy 🙂 )… Not quite the twelve, but what does that matter :D! I’m still a SAGS 😀
7 July, 2010
July 7, 2010 at 9:34 pm
loved reading it… i have read so many of this tag but still each one is so refreshing
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July 7, 2010 at 9:41 pm
Thank you, Monika 🙂 🙂 I too felt that, each time I read a new one, it was like a new one, though a lot of the basic ideas were the same! It’s the way it has been presented, and the reasons… and the words and tiny impressions each blogger brought in that was really really enchanting!
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July 7, 2010 at 9:48 pm
Hehee!! You, sinner…big time sinner!! 😀 😀 😀 Loved reading it!! Kudos to youuuuuu! 🙂
Got a pic of you in shorts? 😀 Lol! would love to see that…hehehehe!!
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July 7, 2010 at 9:52 pm
*Snort* *Snort*… LOL! You wish!! For that pic in shorts :D! Actually I do have one, but I need to dig it out of my parents’ albums. Will show you sometime… if I get it… that is a promise. For your eyes only, ok??? LOL!
Thanks Sashu, most of all, for the tag 🙂 🙂 I loved writing this!! I mean, it was a heaven sent opportunity to pretend to be a sinner, and brag at the same time :D!
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July 7, 2010 at 10:29 pm
I wanted to be first!!!!
“it is not about not conforming. It is more about being who you are, man or woman, doing what you like, you love, really, and not thinking about, Oh! Should I?” is what sums up as to why this tag was even started Usha!!
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July 7, 2010 at 10:37 pm
IHM, thank you for all the fun you brought to so many of us, confessing left right and centre :P!
Awww… I wished too… 😀 Like the little child wanting to please her teacher :D!!
Thanks thanks thanks… 🙂 🙂
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July 7, 2010 at 10:30 pm
Which are the roads that you frequent in Thrissur on your 2 or 4 wheeler ( are there any 6 wheelers too in your stable?) I am sure you must be clocking upwards of 100K. I don’t want to be run over. Especially by a sinner. 🙂 Psssst. Thrissur is my wife’s hometown.
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July 7, 2010 at 10:42 pm
Govind 🙂 LOL! No 6 wheeler in my stable, though I have driven an Innova, an Armada, a Bolero and a Tata Sumo. And no, I do not own any of them 🙂 !
1oo k here? I wish. With the condition of most roads here, that is suicide or manslaughter, for the car, and then the persons in the vehicle, or out of it, in the vicinity! Aha, Thrissur connection? I drive around town, and the radial roads, to guruvayoor, and further… 🙂 Don’t worry most people are safe from me. Even though I drive rather aggressively, my navigators tell me! Perhaps its the angst inside, at discrimination on roads!
Thanks, as always, Govind!
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July 7, 2010 at 11:00 pm
I have a bought a flat on Guruvayoor road near Hitech Hosp.
Should I dispose it off? 🙂
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July 7, 2010 at 11:11 pm
Not yet! I promise, Govind, to drive sanely and safely hereabouts :D! But then again, I just might forget it, in the rush of wanting to teach another goon on the road a lesson! Lol! 😀
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July 7, 2010 at 10:54 pm
This ‘Saar’ business! Once a carpenter asked for my 16 year old son’s superior male opinion when I asked him to do something !!
Being a tomboy also means one is likely to be more physically active and is likely to be fit 🙂 Can’t imagine how someone can justify giving gender to a healthy activity 😦
I too prefer comfortable clothing – and still choose trousers or shorts over skirts or sarees. I think this keeps one more active also.
Being able to give directions, being able to drive and being the engineer of the house are amazing!!! You are an inspiration Ushus 🙂
And the Gender Stereotype rule is if you like to cook, then you also like to be driven everywhere and you cry easily 🙂 You broke the rule… blasphemy!
I would love to see the look on the face of the guys working at your place when you give them instructions 😉
Being net savvy for a woman is a sin against gender stereotypes too 🙄
You are doomed to be a SAGS… but no worries Ushus, you aren’t alone, you have around 140 Brothers and Sisters in Sin 🙂
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July 7, 2010 at 11:02 pm
I rather love the thought of being a SAGS, as you now know, IHM! Only empathy required, and that we 140 and growing have, I think :D!
I keep telling both my boys that I am wayyyy more tech savvy too, than them… so much for the “boys and mech” stuff… 😀
Thanks again! I love the thought of having sinned 😀 By the way how do you get a rolling eye smiley? Need to be educated a bit more! 😀
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July 7, 2010 at 10:54 pm
“There was a time, when I did, and conformed to the “T” ” Tell me about it! 🙂
OMG Bikes??!! Usha you rock! I couldn’t pull my Luna back if it fell 😦
Sigh, I used to be a much better sinner earlier. Change bulbs, repair ‘cassettes’, do all the banking stuff. But the L & M has really spoilt me. He does everything. Other women envy me, but what of I myself?? I fret and fume about being mollycoddled by him. Really I do.
Just now (I can tel you this coz he is not into blogs 😉 ) while returning from a dinner he tells me “Open the window if you want some breeze.” *rolls eyes* Next thing I know he will be telling me put right foot forward first and then left foot, then right again and so on…… that’s how you walk. No no I am not kidding you. 😛
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July 7, 2010 at 11:04 pm
Shail,that is because he thinks you are a specialist. Specialists go too deep into their specialty that they forget their basics.
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July 7, 2010 at 11:08 pm
LOL! You have a point there, Govind, in that backhanded compliment, but it does not go down well at all 🙂
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July 8, 2010 at 10:24 am
OMG. I had forgotten this guy was around! :O
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July 8, 2010 at 6:42 pm
😆
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July 7, 2010 at 11:06 pm
Well, Shail, the Thunderbird is a deadweight, and I would def. need the boys around to ride it, but ride it I will, and into town! That is the final objective. To City Centre Mall, where a whole load of uppity young men, from school, preen! 😛 😛 Dire warnings have been issued to both offspring that they need to get me in shape for this feat :D!
You know, Shail, my sister in law was telling me just this the other day, how her daughter kept telling her she would carry the bag, and she would run and open the door, or the gate … she too did not want to me mollycoddled, but then that is something you can’t avoid I guess. I can just imagine the green monster enveloping your friends and neighbours though! Typical !!!
Thanks so much, Shail, it’s always a pleasure to have your on the spot notes 🙂
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July 7, 2010 at 11:31 pm
To get this, 🙄 You write : roll : 🙂
Thanks IHM, 🙄 … LOL!
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July 8, 2010 at 12:40 am
Yay!!! Kudos Usha!!! You’re my kinda girl 🙂
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July 8, 2010 at 7:21 am
Pallavi :D! Glad to know that!
And thank you for dropping by to tell me 🙂 🙂
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July 8, 2010 at 6:34 am
Hilarious. However I am not scared by the curse of pink shirts you hold to our heads, for I am the constant proud possessor of a pink shirt…constant because I have always had one, and now, I realise, I like pink. Yes, I do, I like pink and I think its a cool color. I would like to wear a hot pink shirt but my kids need their mom and she threatens many things if hot pink is introduced. I dont know why. She likes it too, but on herself.
Also, the carpenters in my house are always advised by “saar” to go talk to “memsaab”. Thats another bastion of maleness that I crumble with my battering ball. I used to read M&B (although strictly speaking, that was for the hot makeup scene on the last 2 pages). I also cant navigate to save my life and the wife takes advantage of that to do back and side seat driving. Yes, I realise I am pointing out several alleged shortcomings in my maleness quotient, so I should also clarify that I think women cannot drive (yes, I heard the gasp, the muttered invective and caught that finger). However, I dont think this shortcoming is beyond hope and with enough training, most women can achieve auto-ambulism without ambulances within a year or so. (Disclaimer – The afore mentioned insult to womankind has been delivered with intent to stave away allegations of homosexuality, of which I have a healthy fear – ergo I lay claim to even more masculinity 😛 )
All in all, a great chuckle and I hope to read more along the same.
p.s. I also dont like cricket (or other spectator sports) – modern day versions of blood spattered gladiators I say – But I like cheerleaders – oh Im so confused 😛
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July 8, 2010 at 7:27 am
Venkat, thanks so much! 🙂
Ah! Not scared of pink? To go further, you love it? As IHM would put it, that is Sin #1! You’re doomed to be a SAGS. Welcome to the gang 🙂 😈
And you go on to mention other sins, be it work at home, or driving (tch tch tch… 🙄 talking of women drivers is so so cliched… but then your disclaimer says you don’t really think so; I shall forgive you, because of your pink soul 🙂 )
M&Bs? Ha! Gotcha! Psssst. My first born too! Me too! Even if it’s for the last two pages 😆
But then again, aren’t we all that wonderful confusion sometimes? And most times I like it that way! It makes you YOU, and me ME… and each of us, just that US.
Loved the way you assure yourself. I do hope you will get to the tag on A Little Bang 🙂 🙂 If and when time permits 🙂
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July 8, 2010 at 9:00 am
I continue being amused by that unique take on SAGS. By the way, I am a tad confused by what is needed for the tag. Am I supposed to add one or make myself available on one? I assume these tags serve the purpose of linking to other blogs. Do I need to do something for this?
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July 8, 2010 at 6:42 pm
Lol! Venkat, I have left a few instruction on your blog 🙂 I hope it will help. Usually a tag is something that is passed on from one blogger to several others. There usually are some rules, and the content too, is to be on a certain topic… This particular tag has its genesis on IHM’s blog. I have linked that post within the blog. Maybe you’d understand better when you read a few of the posts. In fact most of the comments here are from wonderful bloggers who have already done this tag!
So , Venkat, on your blog, create a new post, and write your take on the topic… Sins against gender stereotyping you may have committed :D! And link me back… 🙂
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July 8, 2010 at 11:08 am
Usha…….I shall do the tag on a later day…mum is visiting me..and that requires a post which shall be done after she leaves…and now coming to your post….i smiled all through…this is the kind of wife Joe had dreamt of and he got Me…Saar….dealing with carpentars, painters..all I do is put my two pence..u got me thinking have I sinned.You so rightly say…..[Actually, it’s not the non conformist in me that I am proud of. In fact it is not about not conforming. It is more about being who you are, man or woman, doing what you like, you love, really, and not thinking about. ]So very true…that describes me ….a *Hi5* Usha for all that you are…Loved reading your post.Am chuckling, Usha….
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July 8, 2010 at 6:44 pm
Thanks, Poonam. 🙂 Do take your time. Glad that JP Sir got what he desired 😀 :D!
Am waiting to read of your sins too :D! Thanks again 🙂 For all the lovely words!
*Hi5* 😀
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July 8, 2010 at 12:40 pm
Usha, I want to join the FB Blog group. Can you please include me? My blog FB profile is Nilu Neels.
Thank you!
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July 8, 2010 at 6:45 pm
Thank you Nilu for the visit 🙂 You can join the FB group by clicking on the link in the blog, and just join 🙂 And post your take too 🙂 Share it on the homepage of that Group 🙂
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July 8, 2010 at 12:54 pm
You are a PAKKA sinner..no doubt!! A double hi5 to you 😀
LOL for referring to IHM as the high priestess on SAGS 😆
Oh yes you’re so right..Eve is one awesome SAGS!! Never realized until you pointed out.
you can navigate?? Wow,Usha.. thats an area where I fail miserably!
I love to wear mundu-veshthi too. Incidentally its my Ma’s favorite attire. It has an elegance of its own.. you know like we say in malayalam.. ‘sreetvam’ thats what the attire oozes out for me 🙂
Loved your sin-list Ushus!! Proud to have known a fellow-sinner like you 🙂
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July 8, 2010 at 6:47 pm
High Praise from another Sinner 🙂 My Day is MADE! Thanks, Deeps 😆 !!!
Well, IHM is the one who started it all na? So we need to give her that Due Consideration :D!
Double *Hi5* back. *Beaming away smugly* :P!
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July 9, 2010 at 9:40 pm
I am a fan of yours, Usha. I must have read nearly 9-10 SAGS posts, but not a single one was boring! Hmmm, riding bikes, cars…dreaming!
It was nice to read you, Usha.
Thanks Sandhya 🙂 Nice to have you here! Riding bikes… now that is one sin I need to work on more :D!
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July 10, 2010 at 7:22 pm
Poonam told me that she had been tagged and had to write about my SAGS…. she was trying to recollect her sins – she then asked me to read your post on the subject. Read the post just now. The post as usual is written very beautifully and keeps you engaged, but the subject matter was even more interesting. My God, you really have been, and are, a sinner….. Driving 2-wheelers (and that too bikes like the Thunderbird), outdoor games, navigating, handyman (notice the term doesn’t say handywoman), etc. etc. Good to know this side of you – your earlier writings never gave any feel of this side of you. This is quite a revelation. I can only say WOWWWW.
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July 10, 2010 at 9:11 pm
JP Sir 🙂 Thank you for ascertaining for the readers and all the passers by that I am a sinner :D! Feels good, to hear it from you 🙂
Waiting to read from you and Poonam on your lists as well. I do hope you will give it a shot! You never know, as I found out, how surprised one can be, even at oneself :D! And I must thank IHM for the encouragement too, all of us SAGS :D!!!
Thank you also for the very kind words, as always, for the writing 🙂 🙂 This is one post that had me thoroughly laughing all the time that I was writing 😆
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July 11, 2010 at 1:49 pm
Am I the only person who thinks, are we reading you? Is it the same person we think, we knew? haha. All that in a light-hearted mood anyway, but thanks. Thanks to Sash for tagging you. Thanks for tagging me also. But in all these tagging tangerine, I got to see a very different side of yours which doesn’t so usually come out.
Very nice!
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July 11, 2010 at 1:56 pm
Soumya, LOL! Just some of the many me s that I know I am 🙂 🙂
Thanks so much; and I do hope you will pick up the tag, and do it in your own inimitable way!
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July 16, 2010 at 6:16 pm
Ha ha ha Usha! Loved the Adam-Eve angle 😉 Next time someone calls me a rebel, I will point them to Eve 😉
Well, as I was writing this, and suddenly it just came out of the blue 🙂 But it seemed apt 😀 😀
Thanks for the good words 🙂
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July 17, 2010 at 7:49 am
the joy of you saying that driving the thunderbird was the bestestest is so so so evident… I was grinning ear to ear reading that !!!!!! 😀 😀 😀 😀 AWESOME !!!!!
Another sinner grounded… !!!!!! 🙂 🙂 🙂 and you discuss cricket with the class ??? you havent discussed it with the classiest yet 😛 😛 😛 (i know you mean your class but still 😛 😛 )
The class vs the Classiest, Hitchy 🙂 🙂 Thanks a lot for the Awesome comment too!!!! 🙂 🙂
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July 17, 2010 at 10:01 am
I wouldn’t have expected any less 😀 Congratulations on being such a sinner!
Hopefully, I’ll get around to doing the tag sometime soon.
Aareet 🙂 Good to see you here! And would love to see you do the tag 🙂 🙂 Thanks for the wishes! Proud to bea sinner for a change!
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