F is for Favourites

So I got this notification on Facebook that I had been tagged in a photo posted by a classmate from my primary school days. I was sure it would either be a "Like this page if you like Sai baba" kind of thing, or a "Latest research from Johns Hopkins shows that everyone has cancer cells" kind of thing, both of which irritate me to no end. So I clicked to see what it was so I could immediately untag myself. What I saw made me almost fall off my chair. It was a photo of six of us in our school uniform from some twenty years ago. My first reaction when I saw my two-decade-old self was "OMG class nerd". To verify it, I sent the photo to Viv, a few of my current friends and my in-laws, i.e. those who have never seen that avatar of mine. And the reaction I got from them was consistently, "OMG class nerd". Ditto from the comments on the Facebook photo. So when Facebook prompted me with the "Are you crazy enough to publish this to your timeline?" I hastily pressed the "HELL, NO!" button.

But then I got all nostalgic and dug out my 'opinion book' from those days. Remember opinion books? They were full of inane things that we forced our friends to write, such as their favourite animal, flower and fruit (Seriously? Favourite fruit??), which I have to admit, serve as a great source of mirth now. As I read the list of my own favourites back then, I thought it might be fun to do a comparison of what I used to like then and what I like now.

My favourite colour (then): Pink and sky blue (ahem, 'sky' blue, no less)
My favourite colour (now): Purple

My favourite food (then): Chilli chicken
My favourite food (now): Spicy roadside pani puri served in a leaf, with potato stuffing, not chana, and imli ka pani, no meethi chutney

My favourite subject (then): Sanskrit (because it was easy to ace)
My favourite subject (now): Science (because it is so intriguing)

My favourite actor (then): Salman Khan (I kid you not) and Aamir Khan
My favourite actor (now): None (To clarify, SRK is my favourite star, but I have no current favourite actor)

My favourite actress (then): Bhagyashree (still not kidding) and Juhi Chawla
My favourite actress (now): None

My favourite films (then): Maine Pyaar Kiya, QSQT, Padosan
My favourite films (now): Too many to name

My favourite song (then): Aate jaate from Maine Pyaar Kiya (I had never heard any English songs and I had no clue this song was such a blatant copy)
My favourite song (now): Too many, but if asked to pick one at gunpoint, I'd pick Naam ada likhna from Yahaan

My favourite flower (then): Lotus
My favourite flower (now): Pink gerbera

My favourite fruit (then): Mango
My favourite fruit (now): Mango

My favourite bird (then): Peacock
My favourite bird (now): Err... I don't know. I don't even think I care.

My favourite animal (then): Rabbit
My favourite animal (now): Err... rabbit again? (Incidentally, Xena was born in the Chinese year of the rabbit)

My favourite game (then): Cricket (to watch), Badminton (to play)
My favourite game (now): Badminton (to play)

My favourite place (then): Kodaikanal
My favourite place (now): Queenstown

My favourite drink (then): Maaza
My favourite drink (now): Bundaberg ginger beer, frozen mango margarita

My favourite author (then): Enid Blyton
My favourite author (now): J.K. Rowling

My favourite singer (then): Lata Mangeshkar
My favourite singer (now): Varies, the latest being Arijit Singh

My favourite ad (then): Lehar 7Up (was it the Fido Dido ad?)
My favourite ad (now): Tum chalo toh Hindustan chale (it's not exactly an ad for a product, but it always makes me tear up)

My favourite season (then): Rainy season
My favourite season (now): Mild winter

My favourite junk food (then): Binnie's pudina flavoured potato chips (I beg you, please watch this ad. You'll die laughing at "Humko yeh nahin maangta, humko woh nahin maangta, humko aur koi chips nahin maangta! Toh kya maangta?? Binnie's Binnie's!")
My favourite junk food (now): Cadbury's rum & raisin dark chocolate (though according to some very promising new research, dark chocolate is not junk food anymore, but an essential nutrient required for the survival of the human species)

My hobbies (then): Reading, poetry, sketching, playing the keyboard, singing
My hobbies (now): Singing, blogging, watching Hindi movies, reading Bollywood news

I am afraid of (then): Lizards
I am afraid of (now): Lizards

The place I wanted to visit (then): London
The place I want to visit (now): The whole world