I have had this little motor boat since I was about 10 years old. You place a small candle at the centre and the heat generated makes the boat move forward with a loud tapping sound. We were so thrilled to see it actually move around in the water! Every year, we’d wait for the rainy season to start and test it out in every puddle that’s large enough for the boat.

I have two to show you! This watch and this keychain. The watch I have had since I was in 7th standard, must have cost about Rs.35 that time. Swiss made, West-end brand. About 52 years old! My first watch!
The keychain is from when I got married and moved into a joint family. That was, 42 people, in one house! There were so many many kids around the house so we’d have to keep the rooms locked at times, that is when I got this keychain. It is silver, I used to keep it with me at all times. This one is 43 years old, as many years I’ve been married.

The tattoo machine isn’t very old. I bought it in 2010. It is my first mine-mine machine. I have always loved art and design, but I always struggled with finding something that I loved doing and when I first got into tattooing, I immediately knew this was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I connected with it immediately! So i know I’ll never be throwing these away. The pendant, I must have bought it in 2008. It was so different, something I had never seen before. I wear it all the time. 

This happened when I was in Jordan on work. I had this dream one night, that my sister was with a small girl. As far as I knew, they weren’t even trying for a baby. But for some reason I had this dream, where she was with her daughter. Well, my family is terrible with heirlooms, so I thought to myself, if I see something I like today, something antique, something I just love as soon as I see it, Im going to take it as a sign and I’m going to buy it. When I went out that day, of course, I saw these and I fell in love! I bought it, and thought okay, I’ll probably give it to my niece one day.
What do you know, I call my sister to tell her about this dream and she tells me that they’ve been trying for another child! She calls me a month later, to tell me that she’s pregnant!
They have the baby and its a girl! I hope she is into antiques and these things when she grows up. It’d be great!

This is a little embarrassing. I still have the bed-sheet my mom had me sleep on, the day I was born! It is now in four pieces, although, yeah I have all four with me. It tore because I tried to wash it before bringing it along today. My mom will flip out if she found out that I’m telling people about this haha.

Husband: "We’ve actually had fights about this! She practically wraps it all around her like a mummy and sleeps in it. In fact, she stole it from her house and brought it along when we got married!"

Oh yeah! He kept saying- It’s either me, or that sheet! 

You know what I picked. Ha ha!

Girl with no particular skills seeks employment”. Yeah, that would have been me if it weren’t for writing. So my mum is sort of like the patron saint of my life. Those books she got me? They got me all the things I have in life. As a kid, I discovered books to be far more consistent than people. No bullying, no bossing around, no ice-queen treatment. As a tween, I bonded with my bestie over books. As a teenager, bestie introduces me to LM Montgomery and Ms. Montgomery in turn, introduces me to Emily - the protagonist of this book. As a result, teenaged-me knows I want to become a writer. As an adult, Emily keeps me company through the godawful early twenties. As a later-twenty-something, I find the boy in the workplace - where I work as a writer. So yeah...see why this is the talisman of my life?

This is about 18 years old. This was once when we’d gone on a vacation with all of my extended family to Davengere. It was during our summer vacation. We were the only ones who had come in from Udupi, where we used to live. It was a fun trip! Ha! I remember my cousin cried because her mom caught the ball when we were playing cricket and she got out!
Soon, the vacation was over and on our way back, we stopped at this point where we were to part ways. I was very sad. We saw a store there selling all these kids toys. To cheer me up, my dad said we could go in and buy anything we wanted. The store had a lot of Hot-Wheels stuff. But then, I spotted this bike. It was expensive at the time. About 700 rupees! I pestered my dad for it and him being the sweetest, bought it for me. I was really happy then. Then we went our way. This bike has been with me ever since. Honda NR750 scale model. I think its 1:24.