I Am The Too Thin Girl Who Had The Last Laugh

All through her life, being ‘too thin’ placed her on other peoples’ radar. Finally, she had the last laugh!

When I was a baby I was fat. That was the last time I had put on so much weight.

I would always be that thin little girl with a fragile look but doing monkey tricks. My parents knew where to look for me if I was out of sight. Having long chats, sitting with my friend high up on a goal post or on a tree, was a daily routine. Thanks to my PT teacher in school, I even climbed ropes and somersaulted hanging on rings. How I loved my feather weight!

But there would be so many people around me who were concerned. On a daily basis, I would get to hear people saying, “Oh, why don’t you eat?”, “You are so weak.”, “You will get sick”, “Eat more child”, “One blow and you will fly off” and so on.

I used to wonder what the problem was and laugh.

Since childhood, I have learned to laugh it off.

Then when I grew up to be a teenager, I still stayed thin. What I usually got to hear was, “You are so fit!!”, “You can eat whatever you want, lucky girl”, “You must be exercising a lot”, “how do you maintain your figure?”.

Hilarious! I would still laugh.

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Being thin is not something in my control

I can eat like a horse. Yes, really! I have my mother’s genes. Had I taken after my father’s genes, I confess, it would have then been a different story.

My mom is thin and my dad is on the ‘healthier’ side.

So, coming to the point, there are a group of aunties in my society who love to sit on the bench in the evenings. That’s their meeting point for chatting and passing time.

Two years back when I was employed in an organization (I specify this because being a mom is still an employment, though indoors), every evening I would return from office, I would find those aunties sitting there. The moment I entered the society, I could sense them looking at me and saying something.

One day, through my maid, I got to know that I was their topic of discussion!

I got interested. I mean really, I don’t even know them and neither do they know me.

They expressed their delight to my maid saying that my parents are so nice that they got me married so young. Why? Because they assumed I had a love marriage and since I look so young, surely my parents had to get me married against their wishes. Phew!

I was equally delighted to find out about their cooked-up story. To invent something using your imagination is commendable, isn’t it?

Now that I am a mom, I take my daughter to the park occasionally. The weather keeps changing, but that bench still has that bunch of aunties seated on it every evening, in a particular order. Each has her own fixed place.

She is still so thin!

One evening, I passed them carrying my daughter in my arms, while I saw those eyes from the bench looking at me again! This time I had my ears open. I wanted to hear the gossip.

I heard one of them saying, “People have babies and get fat. But she is still thin. Before marriage she was thin and after having a baby too, she is still thin.”

Then that bunch on the bench laughed out aloud!

I traced my footsteps back to them, smiled and said, “Aunty, look there”.

I pointed at my ‘healthy’ dad standing near the gate.

Their eager eyes glanced at my Dad.

I carried on, “He eats up all my food. Hence, I am thin since childhood.”

Those eager eyes now turned big with shock.

I then laughed and said, “Oh Aunty! It’s a joke. How can my dad do that! I just contributed to the joke you were all having.”

This time they laughed but in a forced manner. Heard of the phrase, if you can’t make it, just fake it? They were a perfect example.

I walked away laughing too and living on my own terms.

He who laughs last, laughs best and I experienced the glory of it all.

The next evening they avoided even looking at me.

Image via Unsplash

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