First Chapter First Paragraph: Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns)

I was so fortunate to be able to hear Mindy Kaling's presentation at BEA this past year, and I honestly don't think I have stopped laughing yet! I carried around the small teaser booklet we were given from BEA and pestered everyone I know to "read this funny thing Mindy from The Office said"....after awhile my family got so tired of reading the same "funny" story over and over I think my teaser booklet had help disappearing.

So now you get to listen to me share and carry on about how funny that Mindy Kaling is 'and oh did you read that part or hear what she said there'.....well, let me simply give you a taste of what you've been missing cause she is so so outrageously hilarious!

I don't remember a time when I wasn't chubby.  Like being Indian, being chubby feels like it is just part of my permanent deal.  I remember being in first grade in Mrs. Gilmore's class at Fiske Elementary School, and seeing that Ashley Kemp, the most popular girl in our class, weighed only thirty-seven pounds.  We knew this because we weighed her on the industrial postal scale they kept in the teacher's supply closet.  I was so envious.  I snuck into the supply closet later that same day to weigh myself.  I was a whopping sixty-eight pounds.

Some of the first math I understood was that I was closer to twice Ashley's weight than to her weight.

"Don't be closer to twice a friend's weight than to her actual weight," I told myself.  This little mantra has helped me stave off obesity for more than two decades.

My mom's a doctor, but because she came from India and then from Africa, where childhood obesity was not a problem, she put no premium on having skinny kids.  In fact, she and my dad didn't mind having a chubby daughter.  Part of me wonders if it even made them feel a little prosperous, like Have you seen our overweight Indian child? Do you know how statistically rare this is? It will then not come as a surprise to you that I've never been thin in my life - except the day I was born , when I was six pounds.

To participate in First Chapter ~ First Paragraph, visit the lovely Diane's blog at Bibliophile By the Sea.

What great books are you reading this week?

Have a fantastic Tuesday!