A Paunchy Problem...

Ever since I have come to Chennai I have been constantly putting on weight…

Few of u who see me now will believe me when I say that I had been underweight throughout my childhood right up to the time I entered college…

Then I moved in with my grandparents…who live in KK Nagar, close to the college.

That day onwards, there has been a remarkable change in me…from a puny underweight boy, I have transformed into a healthy(lets take it as a compliment) guy with a slightly rotund waist which has been threatening to go south any day…And with a family history of a bulging waistline(both my dad and granddad have big stomachs), this has not been a slight worry for me…

The problem is that my grandparents have a different definition of what the ideal daily intake of food should be…my patti in particular feels that at this growing age(though the only growth visible is horizontal) it is imperative for me to eat sufficient amount of food…Any hesitation on my behalf is taken by her as an indication that I don’t like her food(I love her food…those of u who have tasted her cooking will agree with me…but there is a limit to which the human stomach can be contorted and twisted to accommodate ever increasing quantities of albeit tasty food). So in an effort to keep her happy, I eat…boy do I eat…and well…I guess it shows…

A classic example of the highly developed capabilities of my stomach was prevalent a couple of days back, when I decided to eat bhel puri, pani puri, and jalebi(mouth wateringly tasty ones I might add) on the way back from college…filling enough u say..but my patti didn’t know that I had eaten out…so she gave me murukku, thengoyal, mysore pak and adirasam for tiffin when I got home…scared of invoking her wrath..this innocent poor scapegoat ate it…ate it all…and then washed it down with a cup of tea…mind u all this took place within a time span of 1 hour between 4:30 and 5:30..

Enough u say…no…there is more…I was then called by my patti around 7:15 to eat dinner…yes…more food…and I ate…with my stomach groaning…and whining…and pleading me not to…but I survived…there was the usual comment from my patti that I was not eating enough and that she would have to complain to my mom(I told her to go ahead and do so…my mom is a lot more scared of my patti’s food vending habits than I am)…but well finally…it was over…I dragged myself to bed…apologized to my stomach and requested it to behave till the morning and then….blissfully fell asleep…

In order to overcome this threat to my pant size…I decided to start going for walks…so every evening after coming back from college…and then eating(I am not allowed to go out otherwise)…I go for a walk around the neighbourhood…not that there is much to see around here…though I do now know the locations of all the shops in the area. I stuck to this routine for around 2-3 weeks after which I got bored…I am now resigned to this fat fate of mine and all I can do is pray that it doesn’t get bigger than this…

Signing off…

Increasingly yours...

Sriram