Weird things I do

Yet another tag - this time I’ve been tagged by Karthick, and I’ve got to list down 6 of the weird stuff I do in life [I wonder how difficult this is going to be]… Here goes:

• Wake up at 1 in the night, switch on the TV, make a cup of black tea, and sip it in contentment while watching some program on Travel and Living, or some age-old movie that’s playing in a movie channel. The whole exercise lasts for about an hour, and is usually initiated by a couple of sneezes, or a sudden runny nose that I develop in the middle of the night. As I go back to sleep after an hour, warmed by the tea, the runny nose curbed, and my mind fresh from the mental activity of watching the telly, I also mull on how this has become one of the tiny pleasures of my life now
• Turn off the gas knob and the main electricity switch, whilst leaving home, and going back to check both of them atleast 3 more times, before I finally lock the door. When I come back home, I inevitably first sniff the air, make sure there is no smell of gas around, and then switch on the lights. I’m completely paranoid about this, and I’ve never been sure why - maybe I died of a gas leak accident in my previous life.
• While travelling on a train/airplane/bus, and the train is going too fast for comfort (this usually happens in the dead of the night - I, the night prowler, am awake as usual ;)), or the airplane is experiencing turbulence, or the bus is veering on the edge of the road (and there is a steep drop on that side), I pray to God. I tell Him “Oh God… Please take care of me and my fellow passengers. I’m relying on you. However, in case I do have to die today, please take care of my parents”.
• When I hear the sound of rain outside for the first time, I run, open the nearest door/window, take a deep breath (to experience the smell that the dry earth emanates when it first rains), put my hands out, collect a few droplets in my palms and then wipe my face with that. And then I have an enigmatic smile on my face
• I weep buckets (yeah, *smirk*… *blush*) when I am alone at home, and watching a movie that features some sort of a sob-story. The last time I did this was last weekend, when I watched The Deep End of the Ocean starring Michelle Pfeiffer, Whoopi Goldberg, Treat Williams, Jonathan Jackson etc, on Sony Pix. The movie was about a family that has their 3 yr old son kidnapped, only to have him turn up on their doorstep, 9 years later. Very poignant, touching story, that dealt with the trauma and guilt of the mother (Michelle Pfeiffer, wonderful as usual), and of the family, that almost falls apart. A particular scene where the distraught mother (5 hrs after she’s realized the boy is missing), sees the child’s picture, and becomes hysterical, screaming and crying - it had me in copious tears. I wondered afterwards, whether I would have cried so much had I been in someone else’s company - hmmm, guess not :).
• I used to cross my fingers and make a wish whenever I saw a mail-van. It was actually a wierd practice that I (and countless other girls) followed in college (I wonder how many now have even heard of it…). Let me explain the meaning of the practice - we used to believe that when you saw a mail-van, you could make a wish (and the crossing of fingers would symbolize that) - the fingers had then to be un-crossed only when you saw a four legged animal(?!!, yeah, I know, can’t believe that we thought up such things)… Anway this was then supposed to make our wishes come true. Of course, not many of my wishes ever came true, but my belief was pretty strong then, so I would still persist. And till today, sometimes involuntarily, I spy the red vehicle on the road and make the crossing gesture. And then remember that it was after all, just a silly game :). However, more than the silliness of the practice, what brings a smile to my face today is  the realization about how gullible and trusting we’d been at that age - and how cynicism hadn’t invaded our thoughts then. *Sigh*… those were the days.

Yay! I’m done. Phew. *Wipes sweat off brow*.

I’m not going to tag anyone specific here … if anyone is interested to take up the tag, they’re welcome! Meanwhile, I think I enjoyed writing about my idiosyncrasies here - I guess everybody has some wierd quirks that are hidden under the layers of their personality - its fun to write about them once in a while