And she's like this, too.
Mai has been my best friend for 50 years. I think I know her better than anyone else except maybe Mani and he is dead.
Her legal name is a long involved thing with Indian and French all mixed up together and she won't put it on that Internet. I'll respect her wishes in that. Her Sikh name is Harinder Kaur. She thinks Harinder is too big for her because Har is God and Inder is God. So her name is GodGod Princess.
She is not like she appears in this blog. Everything here is true, but she comes across as violent and always looking for a fight. She is not like that. She doesn't object to fighting, but she never starts a fight and she doesn't fight unless she thinks she has to.
But she is really a very kind, gentle person. One time I asked her what she regretted most in her life and she said every time she had been unnecessarily unkind to someone. That is the kind of person she is.
She is very funny. She always makes us laugh. I think she could have been a stand-up comedian. What she says is hilarious and her timing is impeccable. No matter what happens to her, I have never seen her lose her sense of humour.
I remember her in the hospital in 1984. At first when she came she was so badly beaten you couldn't recognise who she was. Of course, she was in a coma for a long time. I wasn't there when she came to, but I have heard the story about how she cussed everyone out because the others were dead and she wasn't.
That's another thing about her. She isn't afraid of dying. Its not that she is fearless like some people think, but she isn't afraid of dying. LOL, you should see her bait my husband Raj. He is a Hindu, not a Jain and can get rough. I shouldn't admit it, but listening to them is real entertaining.
You know her as strong and courageous. She is! She is also vulnerable and she has weaknesses. What kind of a friend would I be if I told you those? OK, she is terrified of heights. She had a plan to overcome that. She had already hired an airplane and a pilot and arranged to be taught how to skydive when she had her stroke last year. She said if she could jump out of an airplane, she would be conquering this thing that made her so mad. Now they'll never let her do it because she has to take boodthinners for the rest of her life. She has talked about going to that clear bridge thing a mile up above the Grand Canyon. When I ask her why, she just gives me that look and says that the way out is through.
She has a very tender heart. She feels like any injustice she sees is being done to her personally, no matter who it is or where or when. If she sees something she gets involved. No woman would get raped or robbed while she stood and watched.
We are both women of principal. We believe what we believe and we live like we believe. What we believe is very different, but we respect each other.
That's another thing about Mai. She says it's one of the basic Sikh beliefs to be tolerant of our differences. I haven't noticed most Sikhs to be very tolerant, but Mai really is. You can disagree with her about almost anything and she won't get mad and she'll listen with an open mind. That is almost. She is not tolerant of the prejudices people have about race, religion, ethnicity's, gender, all that sort of thing. If you want to make her angry, tell a racist joke. She especially hates those. And if you want to be dead, tell her an anti-Sikh, Sardar joke! She won't tolerate those.
I think that is Mai as I know her. I could write on and on, but I'm not a good writer, so I think this is enough. If I think of more I can write more later.
