87) The Calorie Watcher

I met Kalpana Iyer when she was 40 years and she looked stunning with almost model looks. The skin still glowed with youth except for the eyes that had begun to wrinkle at the edges and giving the game away. She is the one of most reputed and sought after interior decorators in town and meeting her, quite an experience.

I was an advertising professional making a shift to Bangalore from Delhi and consulted her regarding my house. We met a couple of times and even my wife found her ideas on setting up the place aesthetic. Slowly our relations progressed to a healthy friendship.

We would meet on weekends and trade stories before ordering for dinner. Watching her eat was something.

“Ashok, don’t eat too much of carbohydrates for you are already getting the double chin. Instead have plenty of fruits and fresh vegetables”.

“Don’t drink water between meals for it screws up the digestion”.

Kalpana seemed to be measuring everything in terms of calories on the dining table. I eat a scoop of ice cream means that I have to run two extra rounds while jogging tomorrow.

I have seen dieting women but never one so finicky about even taking water and what effect it would have on the girth.

She explained much to my bemused look,” Look, I want to live healthy and at 40, my body has already started on the descent curve. It now entirely depends on me to decelerate the ageing process. While young, the system will digest just about anything; even leather as she chuckled and lit up the room with those eyes. Now we must work on our fitness and that’s no longer an option”.

I began to see a lot of reason on her line of thinking and began to bring in those changes as befitting a 45 year old man.

One day, I asked, “How did you become so fitness conscious?”

She chirped: When I was 16, I was the fattest kid in class and I died each time my schoolmates called me MOTTU. I was lethargic until mamma drove the lesson home. If I don’t reduce, I will not have any man asking me for a date and I would die a forlorn spinster. That’s when I went through the gym and became an expert on diet and exercises.

I looked at her and whistled for she still looked svelte. By the way, she married the most famous cardio-thoracic surgeon in town and they make a fine couple on the city social circle.

As I drove back home, I could only think: what a remarkable woman and what grace. (440 words)