I was always the skinny one. Well except for a short while when I was on steroids at 15, to keep my asthma under check, and then I ballooned out. That was the time my three brothers took to calling me Fatty with great relish. There was also that song at that time…Hey fatty boom, boom, sweet sugar dumpling, which hit the top of the charts and which they felt was written with their only sister in mind. They would play it over and over till I would scream in rage and yank it off the record player. Yeah 'record'…for those below 40 years, those were the round black vinyl things on which music was recorded. But secretly, I quite liked being ‘fat’, it was a change from people telling me if they huffed and puffed on me, I would just blow away in the wind or that my waist measurement could enter into the Guinness Book of World Records. A pity my parents never thought of taking pictures of me in my chubby glory, since soon after I went off the medication, I went back to being Skinny Fanny. My only recall of my fat phase is when my brothers suddenly call me, Fatty and people around us look mystified.

For some reason my better half, seemed to like skinny gals, much to the relief of my anxious father. His first girlfriend, (i.e. my husband’s, not my father’s) had also been underweight. Being thin was not something I liked. When I went to buy clothes, the children’s section was where I found more clothes that fitted me. I could rarely buy things off the rack, the way my friends did. Plus point- the children’s section was cheaper. Minus point- limited selection, unlike today.

People told me that I would put on weight when I got married. The glow of love and all that it seems is fattening, but nothing happened. My scales still tipped under 40 kgs. And then came my first and only pregnancy. My well-meaning girlfriends , who by then I think didn’t like the way they had blossomed and I had remained looking like a school girl , assured me that soon, I too wouldn’t be able to pack away the pastries and chocolates, like there was no tomorrow. Since I did put on close to 17 kgs during my pregnancy I did think it would be nice if some of the extra pounds stuck on. But 5 days after my daughter opened her baby brown eyes, and I started a new love affair, I lost all the weight I had put on.

I went to quite a few doctors and underwent some pretty nasty tests. My slightly overweight sister in law told me I was a fool and I should just enjoy the fact that I had a God given quick metabolism or whatever it was that kept me thin. My mother sadly observed that she should have had my genes. She just has to look at a salad to put on weight. My dad is the one who never puts on weight and looks 20 years younger than his actual age.

My daughter got used to her teachers asking her why her sister had come to school for the PTA and not her mother. My husband got used to being asked why he had only brought his two daughters to a party and where was his wife. I got used to being ignored in banks and at gatherings where people thought I was a kid with my mother somewhere around. Make-up only helped a little bit and wearing ‘older’ clothes. Of course it was useful at times when pesky salesman would come to our door and ask to speak to Madame and I would tell them she was not at home.

But then I suppose all good things have to come to an end and I only realized that it was good when it started ending. After I crossed my mid 40’s the weight started piling on in a very sneaky manner and I suddenly found I couldn’t shop in the ‘small’ section anymore. My daughter and I used to exchange clothes or more like, I wore her clothes, when she was not around, but soon that was becoming difficult. A lot of huffing and puffing and holding my breath in, didn’t quite do the trick of getting into skinny jeans. I had gone into the Medium range without even realizing what was happening…thanks to stretch wear and loose kurtis. My age and my weight which sort of seemed to have an unwritten pact to keep pace with each other, suddenly in the last few months broke all the rules and my fat decided to make a sprint for the finishing line. I suddenly put on 6 kgs, without even realizing it. I sort of had been telling myself, I could lose it at any time that I wanted to, but then I had to hit the brakes and welcome reality, when I went home on vacation and someone commented on my backside. Not very complimentary it was.

Today we know that obesity is a short cut to all the possible diseases that man cannot even begin to imagine. A few days ago a Times of India report shocked people into realizing how colossal and real the scourge really is. 2 of every 3 women in urban India are obese. So even though I never really liked being thin, I think being fat is not all that I thought it was cut out to be. I may soon be mistaken for my husband’s mother, God forbid…I think I will have to really work at my yoga and aerobics and diet to ensure that I don’t have to hear a refrain of – Hey fatty boom, boom.