Make a list of 100 things about me

My dominant hand is Right but when I was around 14 then because I enjoyed watching left handed batsmen more, I consciously switched to hitting the ball with left. Initially it was difficult and tedious but then after sufficient practice I could almost as well with my left if not better.
Now I almost naturally throw the ball with my left, I handle the mouse with my left too, I hold the spoon with left too
Even though Right is still my dominant hand but I am quite pleased with the degree of control I have attained with my left and I want increase it even further.

Iwant to be able to write legibly and reasonably fast with my left hand too and I have heard that it is good for the brain too.

And just in case I ahppen to lose one of them(you never know!) then I still wont have too worry as much as otherwise :)

I had quite a few accidents as a child. Once I swallowed a moth ball (guess freud wasnt entirely wrong) in a fit of utter stupidity and had to be rushed to hospital for resuscitation.
I barely survived.

No wonder we have had terrible infestation at our home ever since then.

:)

I realise that my entries are getting progressively larger in size so I will try and shorten them a bit.

ps: Couldnt possibly be as succinct as in the cartoon above though

:)

I studied in a convent school- St. Mary’s HSC for the first five years of my schooling. I was only a decent student uptil class 3rd. I didnt enjoy studying too much and reagraded it as something that just had to be done so that I could go out and have a ball or play indoors. I still remember geeting the report card this one time and it mentioned my rank as 27 out 60 odd students. And I never felt a (bad) thing about it. My prents never pressurised me into studying they wanted me to enjoy and they would let me play outsied until it got pretty dark.

But then we had to move to another place dure to some reasons. And I got enrolled in this difeerent school – Bardsley Convent in Katni. I thought that the school was nice and quickly made new friends. Life was moving along nicely until We had the results for midterm 1. I had done as usual in the exams and wasnt expecting too much. But then I still remember it very graphically – We were sitting queuewise in the verandah (open space) and the teacher started distributing the report cards. My turn came too. then I looked at my report card and Bamm! I had secured the first rank. I felt my stomach chrning and pulse rate increasing. I was hysterical and hyperventilating. One of my friends snatched my report card and after having seen it he shouted to me that I had topped (as if I did not know it!) . And then all the other 50 odd students were staring right at me like crazy people. I could see respect and awe in their eyes as I had just been transferred to that school and nobody (includinig me) expected me to do it. The point is I still feel that I never Did any of it; It Just happened. And I couldnt possibly have imagined how the peoples attitude(including mine) towards me changed:

-everybody wanted to be friends with me
-My mother almost squeezed the life out of me in her euphoric state
-I got to eat lots of sweets
-Teachers were a lot nicer to me
-I was made the class monitor
- I could play lots of video games
-I was allowed to play all that I wanted

Most importantly I came to realise that how incredibly good it feels to be the best( even in a small group) for the very first time in my life. And that was to be a truly life altering experience. I took studies more seriously. I developed more self confidence. I started believing in myself. I became a more serious student. I shunned television. I did my assignments on my own. I realised the value of competition -that it could bring out the best in me.

Ever since that fateful afternoon life hant been the same for me. there certainly have been some diversions and detours but I have marched along this path of my life rather successfully. I scored 90 percent in my matriculation and intermediate. Simultaneuosly I cleared the IITJEE examination (touted as the toughest examination in the world(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IIT-JEE). And I have been doing seriously well in IITK as well. Scored absolute GPAs thrice :)
And I am certain that this quiet cnfidence developed as a result of the string of successes I have had over time is going to serve me nicely in future too. It is a cumulative thing you see.
So what i really feel is that every single person should try and ‘taste blood’ once in their early life whatever be their field of interest. It can very well go on to alter the course of their life.

When I was very young I was a SERIAL KILLER. Felt insanely joyous in my victim’s pain. Plain Sadistic you could say. I would roam around the house in search of a worthy prey. I would go around squashing poor bugs, killing ants, swatting bees etc. Infact I gave into my sadistic side so deeply that I Devised my own set of ‘Japanese experiments’. I wouldnt just kill, I would almost make them wish for death. I would imagine all kinds of reasons through which I could Justify my ‘retribution’ (“The ants got my cookies last week so this one is paying for it!”)
I drowned them, roasted them, chopped them, asphyxiated them.
Boy was I creative as a child.

But thankfully this sadistic streak didnt linger for too long (or god knows waht would have happened).

I ahve become a true believer in the law of Karma. What you sow is most certainly what you shall reap too. As I have matured I realised that how wrong I had been in killing little, helpless, mute, and mostly harmless creatures. I have become a complete vegetarian (not even eggs). I do not endorse products that involve animal killing. In fact so mindful I have become that as I am walking these I am looking down most of the time to avoid squashing any bug (never mind that I bump into some people all time and quite a few of them are very much worth bumping into{ no pun intended}). I have even saved numerous lives. I ahve saved ants, pups. Once I even saved a Lizard that had got stuck into my friend’s drawer! The only creature that still blows my fuse (and for a very good personal reason too) is the wasp but more about it in some other entry.

Here is a website you might have the inclination to appreciate related to my entry : http://www.peta.org/

As a child I also Enjoed playing with the my Superhero Toys – He Man , Skeletor, GI joe and so on. I would spend hours fighting the evil and working my ass off to ensure that the Good prevailed. I would make these characters fight in all kinds of conditions. In the house, Outside the house, in water, under the bed, on the bed, While being suspended on a string etc. I would expertly devise all sorts of complex monouveres and moves(some of which would put knots in the tummmies of Hollywood stuntmen) for these characters. My characters could do all sorts of supernatural stuff. they could defy gravity, breathe underwater, survive in the toughest of terrains, overcome loss of limbs (!) and still fight like crazy. to top it all they were indefatigable.

They were truly superheroes in the most real sense. I do realise that it is kind of silly to say this but in the darkest of times even now when I am feeling down and desperate I do miss those characters, those wonderful ‘people’ who played a huge role in making my child hood the truly wonderful and memorable experience it has been. I certainly could do quite nicely with some of them around and borrowing a few of their ‘special powers’.

As a child I was really into reading comic books. I admired my superheroes. And I would keep pestering my parents for more comic books. My favorite characters were –
Nagraj(King of snakes)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nagraj)
Super Commando Dhruv(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Commando_Dhruva)
Chacha Choudhary(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chacha_Chaudhary)
Parmanu (the atomic man) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parmanu)

I had a huge comic books collection but I cant remember waht happened to those?

Though the interest has diluted as I have grown up even now( i am 22) I dont mind diving into the latest comic books I can lay my hands on.

My parents named me ‘Shantanu’

And I never knew the meaning of my name except for it referred to some mythological character the the Epic MahaBharata. Although a good character, in the epic this person apparently had quite a few flings with several different women (see the pic above).

I personally do not feel too happy with my name but then there are some things you just can not change and besides my parents think that my name is a ‘real good one’.

While writing out this entry I somehow felt compelled to find out the meaning of my name and so I did that.

Ironically it comes out to be something which I had never expected – “A child of controlled passions”, as he was born to his parents in their old age (http://www.boloji.com/hinduism/076a.htm)

My mother studied a little numerology when I was 19 and it came out that I should modify name to ‘Shantnu’ for better fortune So for the last few years I have been using the name ‘Shantnu’ (Sharma)

:)

When I was a kid we had plenty of ‘dags’ (ala Bradd pitt@Snatch). At one point of time we had around 20+ dogs in our house.
We had different breeds -
German shepherd http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:GermanShep1_wb.jpg)
Doberman
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Dobermannhuendin.jpg
Pomeranian
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:PomPhoto10.jpg
Boxer dogs
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cc/Boxer_colors.jpg
Labradors
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:YellowLabradorLooking.jpg

The longest any of our dogs lived was around 13 years. He was a boxer we ahd named Alpha. He had almost become like a member of our family. He was very gentle and loyal. Rarely got testy. Was almost a ‘dream dog’

Just three months before I was born my family survived the infamous Bhopal Gas tragedy(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhopal_disaster)- perhaps the single most devatating industrial accident in the modern history of mankind. My mother was heavily pregnant (6 months) at the time and we managed to survive primarily due to some good fortune – our location and direction of wind.

we had to run to a safer haven for an extended period of time. and my parents still can feel a chill down their spine as they recount the horror they experienced (firsthand) on that fateful night.

ps: the victims of the holocaust are still waging their battle for justice even after 20 years (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/26606804.cms)