I kicked off this week with a QnA in the hopes of starting a new tradition on this blog - my monthly #PickMyBrain posts - where I answer your questions. It's now become one of the most popular posts on this blog so far and it even happened to expand this blog family to a few more readers this week. To all of you who joined us here this week, welcome to the family! And to all of you who've been here for a while, thank you for sticking around. December is already off to a great start. But to make things even better, Shane expressed some interest in the QnA, so I asked him if he'd be willing to answer the same questions that I did on Monday.

So without further ado, I bring to you the answers by Shane Girish.

1. What's your favourite place on the planet?
   Our couch. You should be able to tell from the permanent ass print I've left on my side of the couch. Although I never got to pick my side because somebody is Hitler.

2. If you had to choose one food for the rest of your life, what would you pick?
   Eggs and bacon the way Ankita makes it. Toasted bread, tzatziki spread, bacon, and eggs topped with Sriracha sauce, chilli flakes, and herbs.

3. What is your favourite colour?
   Black. The blacker, the better.

4. What is your favourite make-up product?
   I'm a huge make-up junkie and right now, the one thing I can't live without is my eyelid sketch pen.

5. Do you believe in ghosts?
   Totally. Your farts are the ghosts of the food you ate.

6. Do you believe in God?
   In case there is a God and you want to come over for tea in the afterlife, my address will be:

   "The deepest pit",

   "Fiery torture" Street,

   "Should have seen that coming" City,

   Hell

7. Do you believe in organic products?
   I don't know anymore. I once saw a cereal box that said "Now, mercury free!". I'm pretty sure "organic products" is just another labelling scam in the grand scheme of things.

8. Do you read books? What's your favourite genre? Who is your favourite author?
   Reading is my fallback when the internet fails me. I power-read. I finished 14 books during a 3 week holiday. I like Fantasy and Science Fiction. I don't have a favourite author, I just read whatever Ankita and my friends own.

9. Do you think parents should give the "birds and the bees" talk to their children?
   For the sake of my marriage, I'm going to say that I think that parents should totally make kids watch Ankita and Meenal's video about it.

10. If you find out that your kid or a friend's kid or some cousin (read youngster) is into porn and masturbation, would you find an effective way to stop that or would you let it pass, hoping that they might get bored (!) of those things?
    I cannot stress the importance of the sexual freedom of people of all ages. The default parent reaction in this scenario is to claim that the act is a sin, that you'll go blind, that you'll go to hell, or that you're a pervert for masturbating.

    Masturbation is not a sin. It's just sexual expression. If you're doing it without harming or inconveniencing yourself and others around you, then it's fine. Have a conversation with the concerned individual. Make them understand that nothing, and I mean nothing, should affect their quality of life. Both their own and those of the ones around them. Lying to people, making them feel bad and fear consequences for being who they are, does deep damage.

11. Do you believe in allopathy or natural cure?
    Science for me is the process of experimental rigour. You think red MnMs cause Delhi-Belly? Run an unbiased experiment and show your results. It's that simple.

    It's hard to take claims lacking evidence seriously.

12. Do u have tips to get glowing skin like yours ? :)
    My personal radioactive uranium lake. I take special care to swim in it every day for my perfect green glowing skin.
    

13. What's your favourite book(s)?
    The Dark Tower series by Stephen King. It's amazing.

14. What's your favourite kind of attire?
    I honestly don't care that much as long as they're loose fitting and comfortable enough to sleep in. I usually go for a dull-primary-color/black t-shirt/shirt and jeans. Lately, my mother-in-law and my wife pick out my clothes. I don't even know my own shirt size.

15. What's your favourite movie(s)?
    SO MANY TO CHOOSE FROM. YOU CAN'T REALLY EXPECT ME TO PICK. IT'S NOT FAIR.

16. What do you prefer to say to people if they make fun of your height?
    Haha, nobody makes fun of my height. I'd have to leave the couch and meet people for that first.

17. Do you have any obsessive compulsions like sleeping only on the right side of the bed or stepping out with the right foot?
    No, Ankita's compulsions make up for the both of us. Actually, I think, after I started dating her, I've had to force myself to become more "normal" to compensate for all shit she pulls.

18. What's your favourite TV show?
    Stranger Things. This show ticks so many boxes for me. It's not without its flaws, but it's very very nice. And Futurama. Dear god, that show is just amazing. Honestly, I don't watch as many shows as I used to anymore. I used to binge watch shows and movies all day while working.

19. Have you ever danced in the rain?
    Yis. I've walked, ran, played, swam, jumped, and danced in the rain. I'm from Kerala and we get monsoons. Rain is a significant part of our lives. My wife avoided the rain growing up because let's be honest - she's defective.

20. Do you celebrate festivals? Which is your favourite festival?
    I take part in festivities only because it's fun, not because I feel obligated to. Does the Christmas party look lame? SKIP. Does that super-obscure holiday food stall look like the bomb? Get in line.

21. Would you share your skin care and hair care routine (I mean not only your husband's specs get to know about that , we should too)?
    Sure, why not?

    1. Take off clothes.
    2. Get in the shower.
    3. Apply soap to relevant parts.
    4. Zone out for half an hour.
    5. Act surprised when your partner reminds you to get out of the shower.

22. What is your worst childhood memory?
    Honestly, I've done some stupid shit when I was young. I've stuck my leg into an ant-hill and apparently almost died from an anaphylactic shock. My brother and I have fought and seriously injured each other when we were young. But you know how it is. Kids are stupid. They do stupid shit.

    But so that I don't end that on a sombre note, listen to how I threw a fit as a child when my mum refused to give me a Whisper Ultra sanitary pad.

23. How would you describe 2016?
    2016 started off a little slow but quickly gathered pace. I can tell that I grew as a person and it feels like I did it in the right direction. On top of all that, we had fun as a couple.

24. What are your career ambitions for 2017?
    I love my job and I wake up excited to go to work. I think I'm good.

25. Which is your favourite blog post so far?
    It's a short story Ankita wrote called 'The Shoes I Outgrew'. Every sentence in there is perfect.

26. Is there a post you regret writing? If so, why?
    I REGRET NOTHING.
    

27. What was your experience growing up as an only child?
    Growing up as an only child was very difficult for me because of my brother who was clearly not human. He used to beat the living daylights out of me, until I got bigger and stronger than him. Then I beat the shit out of him. Yeh, growing up as an only child didn't work out well for either of us.

28. When can we expect 22 Nelson Street to be filled with the pitter-patter of baby feet?
    22 Nelson Street is already filled with the pitter-patter of baby feet. Ankita buys her shoes from the kid's section and that too - SIZE 2.

29. What advice would you give to a girl who is struggling to get her parents' approval to marry her boyfriend of 7 years when her parents are simply not accepting of the relationship because the boyfriend is from a different caste, his mother is no more and they have a problem with his father's occupation? They're making her life miserable with suicide threats and emotional blackmail, and accusing her of spoiling the family's honour.
    I'm possibly the worst person to give advice here. But I'll rattle on anyway. If I were you, I'd take the necessary steps to become financially independent first and then start bargaining on my own terms. When people stoop to emotional blackmail and suicide threats to try and get their way, they've already failed as empathetic human beings. That's when you need to stop treating them like they still are.

30. What do you hate about blogging?
    The writing. Man, it's hard. I scratched and rewrote my stories so many times that I lost count. I only let Ankita read my drafts after at least 3 complete revisions interspersed with minor breakdowns because they read like shit to me.

    I can never do what Ankita does. I cannot wake up every day to write a piece of our life's story that never ends. I'm glad that she's doing it for the both of us.

Hope you enjoyed that :D

Happy weekend, everyone!