When I’m hungry I get angry, irritated and all other negative emotions together. If food is not near and I am aware that it will take long time, I even start to feel self pity. This is what scares me a lot, that I can’t be hungry even for a little while. When I think of myself relatively, with other people who don’t even get two meals a day, it frightens me. The human body can survive a considerable time without food, as proven by many heroic tales of survival, but when we feel hungry in normal circumstances it seems an impossible feat.

There have been moments when I have been left hungry. Like the time when I had to wait for my friend to meet me for lunch and I just sat waiting with my unopened lunch box. The hunger drove me nuts. It was so hard keeping the calm and patience to wait and not start eating. When my friends finally came I couldn’t keep it all inside my self any more. I burst into anger calling my friend insensitive and selfish, accusing my friend of making me wait so long while my friend them self was not too hungry. Till now I use that day as leverage, for when ever I’m late and my friend has to wait for me. 

Hunger for food is the only type of hunger I have felt.. People experience hunger for power, money or even love. I don’t know about these feelings and I feel lucky for that. Hunger for food is annoying, but it’s a basic human instinct that drives us. We walk and move around in pursue of food and nutrition. We study in childhood, get a job when we grow up in order to earn money to feed ourselves and those we are responsible for. So, hunger for food seems natural to me.

I am a picky eater even though I love food. The few items that I like, I would say that live to eat those, rather than eat to live. Food to me is a celebration of life. The living can enjoy the joys of eating, while the dead have to resort to decaying the food to reminisce the time before they died –as mentioned in Sir Nicholas’s death day party. I am thankful that I am not that hungry yet.

Note: It is not 750 words. I know, I was very bored today.

I have always wanted to have pets, that love you back unconditionally. But then, getting a pair of goldfish was very foolish on my part because fish don’t show any emotions. They don’t come towards you when you come back home from school, they don’t snuggle up with you when you are sad to give you warmth. They aren’t even warm blooded! I think I even read somewhere that goldfish have a memory span of less than four seconds!

Yet, I loved my two goldfish, whom I named Norbert and Nicole; and I know they loved me back.

Like it happens with all major decisions in my family, the decision to go get a tank, fill it with water and two pooping machines and then add an extra chore of cleaning that tank, was taken on a Saturday afternoon. It was I who wanted the fish so I had to prepare a small presentation with all information regarding the maintenance, user experiences from the internet etc. Parents agreed and we were off to the pet store to buy the fish and equipment. When choosing the fish food we opted for the vegetarian because both my mother and I both did not want the non vegetarian food finding way into our house. Setting up the tank was easy. Find a flat secure surface, place the tank, fill it with water, immerse the motor pipe that pumps fresh air into the water and drop the fish in.

They were two tiny golden beauties. I tried my best to find the gender marks on them as the internet told me, but couldn’t. So I just selected one of them and gave it a masculine name and the other a feminine name. The fatter one who had a peculiar mouth resembled a fiery dragon. So I named it Norbert after the baby dragon in the book Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. My elder sister got the chance to select the name for the second fish. She choose Nicole, because according to my sister, the fish looked as pretty as the actress Nicole Kidman.

I still remember the highlights of my day was feeding the fish. We would raise the lid of the tank and drop in a handful of the fish food, which resembled little multicoloured balls. Norbert and Nicole would rise to the surface and start eating all of it. I read online, that just like babies, goldfish do not know when to stop eating. So we should feed them appropriate amounts of food.

Soon I had friends coming over to my house to see my pet fish. One day, all my classmates decided to come to my house on our way from the extra classes. I wasn’t the popular girl in my class and this was surreal, looking at all the girls and boys from my class in my bedroom staring at my fish!

Norbert and Nicole continued to grow healthily. But the division of labour was getting unfair. The job to clean the dirty tank was being left for my mother more and more often due to my approaching exams. Sister wouldn’t ever touch a dirty tank making my mother more furious. She was particularly angry because slyly my sister had taken over the job of feeding the fish. She made a routine out of it. Being the first one to have a bath in the morning, my sister would come into our room to get ready, and while combing a hair or something, she would feed the fish. This became a habit which we couldn’t break as having been fed once, the fish should not be fed again. So my father made jokes about this, saying that my sister feeds the fish, the fish poop, mother and I clean the poop.

We left our house for more a short vacation twice during the time we had Norbert and Nicole. For that time, they were left at my friend’s place who had a huge tank with about fifteen different fish. I used to carry them separately in two jars of water, empty it in her tank. Then scoop them out later to bring them into my tank. It was easy to identify my fish in her tank of other goldfish as I had spent hours just gazing at their fins.

After about two years, Nicole got very sick and died. We buried her in the garden. Norbert was alone but doing well. But he too got sick. It was scary, as he got bloated up and started swimming upside down, unable to steady himself. It was typical dark and stormy night. It had rained all day and water was rushing down the sides of the road everywhere. We decided to let Norbert free in the water. My father and I went down, clutching the jar that held Norbert. On finding the main drain that goes out of our complex, I opened the lid the let Norbert swim away in the water while father stood trying to hold on the umbrella. As I saw the water gush away, I remember Disney to comfort myself “All drains lead to the ocean” from Finding Nemo; and hoped with all my heart that it was true.

They say that we eat to live, while there are many who claim to live to eat. There people to treasure food more than any other item. It has been a sign of prosperity through the ages. Man spread out across the globe in search of food, he settled in rich regions where food was plenty and started civilizations. The greatest civilization of them all - the Roman Civilizations is infamous for periods of suck vain luxury that the people used to purge themselves when they were full in order to enjoy and eat more food.

While there are some who enjoy everything that is edible and there are others who like selective items. I am particularly selective in things I want to eat. To start with, I am a vegetarian. That means I limit my food range to things of plant origin only. Another meaning of it is that I do not wish to kill any animals for my dinner table. Thus I don’t mind eggs and milk from cattle. From free range and organic farms only of course.

When we look into this selective vegetarian diet, my favourite vegetable of them all is the potato. It is the most versatile and delicious vegetable. It can be fried, boiled, bakes, roasted, mashed anything and everything you wish. It acts like a sponge when cooked with the spices and herbs, by absorbing all the wonderful aromas and flavours. Potatoes can make any meal edible for me, when added to any curry or sabzi. I have fond memories of childhood of eating only salted bakes potatoes with nothing else. One thing to note is that one of the most common potato dish - the French fries/chips is my least favourite potato dish.

After that, second comes recipes from the Italian cuisines. I simply am in love with pizzas, pastas, breads with all the different types of cheeses and drizzled with olive oil. In my day dreams, I think of elaborate plans to design a time machine, go back in time and deviate history in such way that India and the Roman civilization make trade relations long before the British came to India. That way we would have had such great cultural exchanges that tomatoes, chillies, olive oil and cheese making wouldn’t be a foreign concepts. But alas, it was the British that came and gave us tea and chicken tikka!

Among other vegetables, my favourites are capsicum or pepper, onions, tomatoes, French beans, cabbage and sometimes carrots, spinach and cauliflower. I like them steamed and sautéed. In fresh herbs I like them all, the best being coriander or cilantro and mint leaves. Indian cuisine is abundant in pulses and grains. I love rice, wheat, kidney beans, mung daal or bean, chana and also chole.

I love burgers and can eat them almost everyday, with an aloo tikki in the middle of course. Though I said I eat eggs, I don’t like them in direct form that is in omelets, egg fry or boiled eggs. I like them in deserts, like cakes, muffins and cookies.

Apple is my favourite fruit, with grapes coming in second. While everyone in India loves mangoes, my affair with this king of fruits ended a long time when it start giving me acne. I am much happier with my water melons and bananas. I love orange juices and but not a fan of eating the fruit. I also prefer berry juices, like grapes, blue berries etc.

I enjoy pastries and cakes more than Indian milk based sweet dishes. The only Indian sweets I like is the kaju barfi and peda. In cakes, I love chocolate and vanilla and avoid citric flavours like lemon and pineapple. Recently I had a strawberry milkshake in Mahableshwar and it was divine. It will always have a special place in my heart.

Black pepper is my favourite seasoning, I add them freely in all salads, pastas etc it needs to be in. In other dried spices, I like oregano, rosemary, thyme and chilli flakes. In sauces, I love bechamel or white sauce. In condiments I like plain old ketchup, Tabasco sauce and mayonnaise.

We Gujaratis have a special category of snacks called farsand. It consists of dry snacks that can be stored for long time. I love bhakarwadi and shakar para both sweet and savoury. I tasted a snack called Rice Cakes in Australia and loved them. I am so thankful to God and my parents that I get to enjoy all these without ever experiencing shortage or hunger. I hope to see a future where every person in this world gets to be this happy.

While I think of a nice way to start this essay, all that comes in my mind is the cliched “Greed is one of the 7 deadly sins”. Of which I no not much about. I just know there are deadly sins that the Christians believe. And there are 7 of them. As of think of others, it seems like greed is the least harmful. Or maybe we all feel that way about which ever sin we commit as a way of self defence. 

I am greedy for those things which I don’t get a lot of. For example, I am greedy for chocolate, deserts…lets just say for food. The greed monster comes out when I work hard to cook something, or save money and order something delicious and some one else waltzes in a have a taste, but takes a BIG bite out of it. It is in the form of anger, sadness and irritation. Why can’t this person cook for themselves, why take away from me and leave me with less than what I worked for. Now that I think of it, does that make a me “glutton” too? Naa, probably not. Because I feel greedy about people’s attention too! Specially friend’s attention. I enjoy being the person that everyone calls, wants to meet up with et cetra. I get to enjoy this a lot, but when it doesn’t happen, like when I call my friends and they just hang up saying there are busy, or out with their boyfriends or family et cetra, it makes me really sad. I find this way prioritizing very weird and wrong. If I give my friends the most importance, almost equivalent to my family, why can’t they do the same. I guess this is because I’m the younger sibling, I think studies show that younger siblings turn out to be attention seekers.I saw on Discovery Channel that a study was conducted where a mother was kept in an observation room with her two children, a five year old and a 1 year old. First she was asked to play with her younger child only and ignore the elder one. This resulted in the 5 year old behaving in a very well manner. The kid smiles sweetly, tells the mother adorable things like “I love you, mommy”. But when the test continues in the second part, the mother now focuses her attention to the elder sibling while ignoring the younger the child. The baby’s reaction is completely different. The child starts crying, shrieking, tugging at the mom’s clothes and hair, tries to fall into her lap etc. The test carries on the with many mother and children groups with almost same results. This is the greed for attention that I identify with. Watching that show was shocking, I did feel ashamed and have been working on my behaviour since that.

I can’t seem to think of any other thing I am greedy about but I have to write about 250 words more so I continue rambling on.

Being greedy is not always a bad thing. Like being greedy for peace or happiness. In face, I believe we ought to be greedy about this things, not just be content with it. One can not have enough of peace, love or happiness. Greed for development and progress is vital for any successful invention and discovery.

If the greatest scientists in the world were content with the mediocre test results and failed experiments, we would never have had the light bulb, or the telephone, the elevator to name a few.

If the leaders and pioneer were not greedy for freedom we would still be in colonies saying “God save the Queen”. it would still be illegal for women to have an abortion, or vote in elections.

Girl child would still be denied education and a happy childhood. Some kinds of greed are essential. Some are deadly. I hope to keep in mind this in all my future endeavours. I hope to keep in mind rather than dwell in my greed and be sour about it, I must work hard to achieve the thing I am greedy about . And then if I still don’t achieve it then identify my short comings and then work on them. That I should let me greed drive me towards excellence rather than bring me down and make me sad.

Then I could be honestly right when I say that greed is the least harmful of the 7 deadly sins.

When we are little, wishes are one of the most magical things in the world, and remains so when we grow. We learn of them either from elders, in phrases like, “to wish upon a star” or when we visit fountains with coins at the bottom, representing countless wishes of others. I remember when I first came upon the concept of wishes, it was all to the credit of Disney and a cartoon called Aladdin.

Much of my idle childhood summers were spent deciding the ‘three wishes’ a genie would grant me. My friend and I would think of elaborate ways to trick the genie in granting us more than the standard three wishes. It was much later, in my teenage, that I discovered the ritual of wishing for something before blowing the birthday candles. But as I grew up, none of these held my interests as much as one particular way i.e. to “wish upon a star”. I haven’t ever seen a shooting star in the night sky, but I have certainly thought of a long list of wishes I will ask for, if I do see one.

So, here is my wish list. A carefully planned, rectified list, more than 15 years in the making. It all starts with a simple wish, kind of a red herring. My first wish is that may all my wishes come true. I know all stories specify that wishes have a clause, and that this wish cannot be fulfilled, but it is worth a try!

Second is the well-being of my family. Specifically health and happiness, and by family I have come to include more members through the years. As of 2011, ‘family’ includes my parents, sister, her husband and my cat Dobby.

Next comes, peace and joy in my sister’s married life. Growing up isn’t easy always pleasant and one of the harsh truths I learnt when I grew up is that marital bliss is very rare, I wish fervently that my sister gets hers.

Strength and hope, is what I wish for my friends and relatives who have lost family and loved ones. I wish they find the courage to continue living and do not give up on happiness.

Success and happiness in my work and future endeavours is the wish I seek. I do not wish for money or fame, because I do not want my happiness to be dependent on something as volatile as money.

Then, there is the goodwill wish. I wish tyrants, corrupt politician and terror leaders realize their wrongs and mend their ways, and that I live to see the outcome. I believe that this will directly result in world peace, better living conditions for millions, etc.

Adding to the list is a changeable wish. This is the one that is different every time I try to remember it. Some days it is the wanting of the latest smart phone, some days it the owning all the books in the world, or knowing how a certain boy feels about me. As of today, it is being able to drive my car perfectly, thereby gaining my father’s trust and keys of the car. This wish will eventually come true in a few months, after practicing, and then this wish will be for something else like having my own personal shopper and stylist.

The last wish has been the only constant wish ever since I knew what a wish was. It all started with a Disney cartoon, and ends with it as well. My last wish is to visit and spend an entire day in Disneyland. To be specific, I want to see the Disneyland in Orlando, Florida. Not the other Disney parks in Paris or Honk Kong.

I have tried all the other wishing avenues, tossed coins in water fountains, wished for these every birthday, crossed my fingers while rubbing every lamp I stumbled upon, but none worked 100%. The last hope is in the one I think is the oldest of them all, that man must have discovered when he crossed the plains of Earth to settle far and wide. So, every night, when I look up at the sky, at the stars struggling to compete with the bright city lights, I cheer for them, and hope to see the feeble streak of light across the inky blackness, that will make all my wishes come true.