Awards Galore – Congrats!! :)

Its raining awards!! 😀
Been a lovely last few days with blogger friends awarding one after another like there’s no tomorrow!! 🙂

Firstly it is the “Star Award” – awarded by Megs…which was again awarded by Dev-D. So double Star Award!! Yay!! 😀
Thanks…and love you guys! 😀

Rules of Accepting the Award: Pass the love to those in your blog roll.

So I pass on the award to:

1. Agila – for telling me what I am! 😉
2. AKB – hoping that she breaks her silence or laziness and gets out of dormancy. 🙂
3. Amrita – for the ever encouraging comments and dil-se posts! 🙂
4. Amit – for shared memories… 🙂
5. Brig – for his comments that brings on that smile…and his “I’m back to blogging” posts! 😛
6. Eddie – my first blogger friend (and now for all those leg pullings 😉 ).
7. Nayna – for being the angel she is. 🙂
8. Preeti – my tanni partner! 😛
9. Sowmini – for being my dear old patient. Btw, do you read my blog? 😛
10. Thousif – for his comments, with blessings ofcourse! 🙂
11. Shruthi – for helping me remind my college days through her posts! 🙂

Secondly, it is the “Happy Award” – awarded by Raji, the Princess!! 🙂
Love you too gal!! 😉

Rules to accept the award:
1: Link to the person who gave it to you,
2. List 10 things that make you happy,
3. Pass it on to 10 happy bloggers.
4. Notify the nominees about this Happy Award.

10 things that make me happy: 😛
1) Blogging
2) Being busy…nah, not the technical work.
3) Finding a bug…as well as coding bugs! 😉
4) Friends…pulling their legs…and getting pulled by them…
5) Family…for just being there…
6) Beaches…for the careless attitude, it showcases!
7) Remembering something, for I forget a lot 🙄
8) Gals…
9) Driving at max. speed on Blacky…my Honda Activa…
10) Messaging…like there’s no tomorrow…

Well…will pass this on to:

1. Tigrrr – for beating me hands down when it comes to being enthusiatic (and even on the weigh-scale 😛 ) 😆
2. Eddie – for those feel-good-forced-angry mails I get from her, for forgetting to mail her. 😀
3. Himanshu – for being the goody goody friend. Even if I write something in reverse order, he would still say wow (cos ‘wow’ is a palendrome? 😛 ). 😀
4. Revs – for being able to bear all my bull shit – I think she ignores what I say 😛
5. Arun – for those ROFL moments through his caricatures. 🙂
6. Agila – for I feel she’s this happy-go-lucky gal through her free-thought-flowing kinda write-ups.
7. Anna – for being there, when it comes to encouragement 🙂
8. Arshat – for his desi write ups…TPI never fails to tickle me! 🙂

Thirdly, it is the “Blogger buddy Award” – awarded again by Raji, the same to same Princess!! 🙂
Love you once again gal (mast mouka milaa 😛 )!! 😉

No rules in this one, but I’ll give this to those blogger friends I’ve met (and who hasn’t got this yet, to my knowledge):

1. Dev-D – met him once, but I guess it just didn’t feel that way.
2. Arun – silent in person, but creatively very expressive.
3. AKB – for saying whats on her mind! 🙂
4. Brig – Loved it when he bashes (and white washes) in words, his superiors 😉
5. Amit – My College Chum…saala dost, in local decent terms. 😉
6. Kavi – My office senior…she never made me feel so though 🙂
7. Nags – For being on the top of the list – of the kind I’m so NOT – PERVERTS!
8. Revs – For all those bakwaas talks we’ve had. There is never a full stop when we talk…total jugalbandhi! 😛
9. RV – For all the good times! 😉

Phew…done-donaaaa-done…Congrats ALL!! 🙂

 

Of Bloggers and their ways of going about it all… ;)

This post is a result of having had a steady look at the different kinds of bloggers at my corporate blogosphere. I sincerely don’t mean to hurt the sentiments of (emotional) bloggers over here, nor it is an attempt to make mockery of any individual in particular. If you relate to any particular type and don’t mind letting me know, then do feel free to use the comment section here.

So what are the different kinds of bloggers we have around?

1. Prolific Bloggers – These are the kind…who no matter what the situation they are in, whatever place they are located in…do find time to do a post…almost daily…They may stick to a particular genre of writing or write on any general topic.

2. A-prolific Bloggers – These are the opposite of the above kind. Its a big deal, if they post once in a month or quarter. But the topics they post are very meaningful – either relating to something they want to share or provide some solution – mostly based on their own experiences.

3. Frequency Bloggers – These are the kind…who stick to a particular frequency…usually on a weekly basis or else on monthly basis…say, they post 3 posts a week – then they stick to it. Genre, usually varies…

4. Random Bloggers – These I would say are opposite to frequency bloggers. They don’t have any pattern as such, but then on an average they publish almost as many posts, a month as frenquency bloggers do.

5. Poetic Bloggers – As the name goes, this kind posts only poetry on their blogs.

6. To-be-Fed Bloggers – These are one of the kinds…they find it tough to come up with topics, to write on. But then give them a topic and they are the happiest people who oblige to write.
 
7. Participative Bloggers – Host a carnival or tag them to a meme, they would surely participate. A majority of these, fall under the to-be-fed bloggers!!

8. Emotional Bloggers – They can also be called the cribbing bloggers. A mosquito bites them, they post on it. Mostly negative, but then absolute truth.

9. Bakwaas Bloggers – These are happy kinds, who write on and about anything and everything. They just need a reason to write and don’t even need a topic, sometimes. But when they write on topics, it could vary from serious to senseless. They try to experiment with various shades of emotions.  Also they put in pictures in their post, sometimes having no relation at all with the contents of the post (like in this one 😉 ). 😀

10. Editing Bloggers – These are bloggers who edit their published blogs over and over again. Usually they publish a raw draft and then edit the published version based on their own judgement or (mostly) when pointed out by their commentors.

11. Photography Bloggers – As the name goes, they post only photographs. These are of three types:
a) Click Photography Bloggers – They just post all the photos that they have clicked. Not a word said, in the post as if they really believe in their picture conveying a thousand words.
b) Expressive Photography Bloggers – These kind of photo bloggers, explain the photos posted…be it their technicalities like exposure, saturation, etc or the places where they were shot at or some random oneliners…some creative ones even weave poetry around their pictures.
c) Contest Photography Bloggers – These kind not just post their clicked pics but they even conduct contests based on them.

12. Host Bloggers – These love to play host. Be it organizing a carnival or contest. Some do it periodically and some do it frequently, mostly as a series.

13. Guest Bloggers – These love to post anonymously. If they feel they cannot post a topic on their own, they request/convince a blogger friend of theirs to post it on their behalf anonymously as a guest post. Some do it for the thrill of anonymosity as well. 😉

14. Group Bloggers – These are bloggers who like to write, but are shy types. They need peer bloggers who will support them as well as push them to publish. They usually are a part of group blogs and don’t open a blog personally.

15. Art Bloggers – These bloggers publish cartoons, caricatures, sketches, paintings or any form of their physical (or online) art work in digital format. They are usually, the silent types…in their comments.

16. Romantic Bloggers – These kinds can write only about love and romance, sometimes moving into the area of lust. They write both stories and poetry…but on the whole are imaginative and seldom write on self experience.

17. Newspaper Bloggers – These are the kinds who will write about all thats happening around them. In their blog, you get to read about whats happening around them, just like you get to know about the world in a newspaper.

18. Series Bloggers – These kinds, mostly publish posts in a series format. Be it stories or poems or experiences – they do it series – short, long and never ending.
Note: I remember having seen someone write a tele-serial kind of series, which was in its 40th+ episode.

19. Optimistic Bloggers – These kinds will never give up, no matter the ground beneath them collapses. Even with a bad rating in their latest appraisal cycle, they manage to review and appreciate even a below average movie or book. (cos they realize the feeling of being badly appraised? 😛 )

20. Apologetic Bloggers – These are lazy bloggers, who post once in a blue moon. They always start off with a one liner (like a Mahurat shot in movie making) where they profusely apologize to their readers/commentors/followers. The stress on apology is directly proportional to their longevity of absence. 😛

21. Sarcastic Bloggers – These are a combination of emotional and optimistic bloggers. Emotions don’t give them the freedom to write optimistically and optimism doesn’t allow them to openly crib. They basically experience emotional cocktails but then for the readers, they are an absolute source of humor and entertainment.

I can think of only this many as of now. Though there are the arrogant bloggers, dreamy bloggers and so on, I feel they fall under some of the above classifications. If you know any other kind, pls feel free to add. 😀

 

Blog Contest @ The Colors Magazine! :)

Well Well Well…bloggers who read me….Here’s is something for you!! 🙂

The Colors Magazine has announced another contest – The Best blog Contest …
All you bloggers out there, get ready for a treat of mersmerizing posts …and get to know new bloggers and also make yourself visible to others…

Every month, a post (published in the previous month) from a blog submitted by the paticipants will be selected as the best blog post of the month that went by… and at the end of the year, the best post will be selected from the 12 best posts of the month…

So whattya waiting for? Head to the Colors Magazine and submit your link as it asks you to!! 😀

 

An evening of Meetings in Madras!! :)

Its 11pm as I write this now and I just came back home after being at the Besantnagar (Bessy) Beach the whole of this evening!! Btw (esp. this is for Isd’s info) as I write this, I am listening to Haule Haule from SRK’s soon to be released movie “Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi” – a catchy cum peppy tune I must add! 🙂

Anyways, I got to meet a whole lot of friends today at the beach in 2 separate meets. First one scheduled at 5pm was a bloggers meet, an informal gathering of our company’s internal bloggers. Though we don’t need a reason to meet, today it was to meet a blogger who had recently moved to Chennai from Coimbatore on transfer. It was that time for some of us, where we get to match a face to the name we have known for long through his/her blog. Its always nice to get to meet the person you love through his/her writeups!! 🙂

Though the bessy beach is just 2 kms away from my flat, today I went there after 3 weeks…sad that I needed a reason to go to a place I love to go. Hmm…anyways, I loved to get half wet in the cold salty water of the lovely ocean…the bay of bengal….

We chatted for a while sitting on the sands as many unknown people approached us now and then…some offering to read our palms and some our faces, some vendors offering to sell us their products and some seeking alms. We heeded to none, as we went on and on…well, there were those moments of silence but lets not hype about that!!!

Then we went to this place called Planet M which is sort of a food court, and had another chat session (both mouth-uttering and mouth-watering ;)) for close to an hour before we all departed, one by one and slowly!! 🙂

My next meet was with a set of gals…Let me intro those with their proxy names…Didi, Secy, Bevdi and Suba (Aww…she doesnt have one…need to think one for her)!! They were hogging all this while at Cake Walk as Nive and I joined them there…Nive left for home in sometime while the rest of us had another hog-session for another one hour. No wonder we then complain about putting on weight…as the gals bitched about different stuff, I dawgged!! Woof Woof!! 😉

After the pet-pooja, we were back on the shores of the beach…with Bevdi and Suba deciding to sit on the shores, it was just Secy, Didi and me who took a long walk on the sands till the very spot where the waves touched our toes…All the way, there were some intellectual talks…some matured ones…some of the usual bitching and ‘dawgging’ and some stupid giggles. Mom called in between asking me about my beloved ill-health which refuses to leave me inspite of all the medications and precautions. She even went, “Why there when you are not feeling well?” when I replied “Beach” to her “Where are you?” query!!  Ah! you know Moms!! 😀

On getting back to Bevdi and Suba, we got into a discussion on movies…especially the scary and horror types…which led to talks on black magic and voodoo dolls…not quite intellectual, but nevertheless.
I walked Didi down to her house, main reason being the books she had asked for, which I had kept in my Activa parked near her place.

After a quick bye, I joined the other 3 for dinner at this place called “Family Restaurant”…it was our first visit to that place, and definitely our last. The place stinks…big time. It was stinking outside (some drainage leak) where we sat, but it was stinking even more in the AC inside. Sheesh.! And the service, was pathetic…the mineral water we had asked for came right at the end of the course, that we were kinda unsure if it was to drink or for hand wash! Food, well…was nothing great!

But overall it was a good evening as I got to meet a whole lot of my gang-of-friends here  in Chennai for these short-n-quick meets…and as Sukhwinder still goes on, Haule Haule hojaaye….I take your leave!! Sayonara! 🙂

 

[Kiddo-Bloggers]~ Shreya and Om!! :)

“What can kids do?”…Ask this, and see how many people will point all their fingers at you and laugh on your face…
The question to ask now-a-days is “What can’t kids do?”…And you will have to search for answers! May be the only thing they can’t do is legally vote…but then how many of us “matured” ones do?
Anyways, this post of mine is dedicated to those kids who are on their way to shake the blogging world, and what a start they have got…a start so young. Mind Blowing! 😀
Hats off to their parents too…to expose them to this virtual world, guide through their initial days and then watch them grow, all proud! 😀

I am gonna introduce two budding kiddo-bloggers, the kids of my colleagues. They are actually very young, but their blog contents could put us in a dilemma regarding their ages. These are stars in their own cute ways! 😀

“Big things, come in small packages” – and err…”as the packages grow, things get bigger” 😉 Here I go…

Ladies first…

Shreya Sanjay

She’s an 8 year old (who celebrated her 8th birthday on the 8th day of the 8th month of the 8th year of this century…phew) millenium baby who started blogging @ “Shreya’s journal” about 4 months ago and there has been no looking back since then. Her posts cover up topics ranging from social issues (Water, Fights in the world) to belief’s in God and one-self…and I believe with time for her, there are many more grounds to be covered and in the process, more hearts to be won! 😀
Motivated by her parents (they just moderate the comments that she receives), she carries the “Youngest Blogger” tag in the most responsible and mature manner possible.
Recently she even featured in one of the leading business newspaper – ‘The Hindu Business Line’ – articles where she reveals as to how and why she took up blogging, her inspirations and motivations. Kudos little lady, kudos!! 😀
Shreya, its been wonderful reading your thoughts in the form of your write-ups…Continue to ‘follow your dreams’ dear! 😀

Naughty next…

Om Shreshti

 

He’s a 4 year old (celebrated his birthday just 2 days back on 2nd Oct…Happy Birthday buddy! :)) kiddo who loves to shoot, with a camera ofcourse. And so, his Nana (dad) decided to showcase his talent to the virtual world through his personal photo-blog “Om’s window to the world“!! 😀
In his Nana’s own words, “He takes a picture & then immediately has to see if it was what he wanted to capture. I get a feeling that this is how he wants to cross check the way he sees his world & freeze it.”
As of now it is his parents who fill in for him when it comes to drafting and posting his photos, but that day is not far when this little master will take the lead…all he needs is that motivation (which his parents are unconditionally providing) and that push (which we as readers/visitors are known to give :P) to carry on with his passion of showing us the world, his way!
Om, its been a pleasure to see the freezed moments you shot…Continue to ‘click, capture and convey’ buddy!! 😀

UPDATE: Also check out 8 year old Sai Krishna’s blogging over HERE…these kids just amaze me with the content they post…Kudos Krishna, you are doing very well!! 😀

 

A week that wasn’t…

One week I went away on a break and it seems like things went all wrong all over…I didn’t expect the world to be a different place altogether.

Last Saturday evening, I left for Mumbai on a week long vacation not for any occasion/function but just to get in touch again with an old habit of visiting my cousins there. Till about the time I joined work, I used to visit Mumbai every year without fail. But in the last 32 months this was just my second visit, the last time being a short visit of 2 days to attend my cousin’s marriage. So this time I decided to take a week off and along with my sister visited the city that never sleeps, Mumbai.

But hardly did I foresee that the world would be a different place in a week’s time. On landing in Mumbai on saturday night, we were welcomed with the news of serial bomb blasts in the capital of India, New Delhi. On reaching home, this was the topic of discussion among us all…my aunt (mom’s sis), uncle, uncle’s dad and me. Little did we know then that much more was in store for us the next day.

On Sunday morning, I got up early at 9 am to the news of an email alert that had been sent from one “Eric House” in Chembur (and my aunt’s place was just that!!!) and to our astonishment, the person (Mr. M. N. Kamath) whose insecured Wi-Fi network was used to send that email was none other than my uncle’s dad’s cousin.  What came to my mind suddenly was the open insecured Wi-Fi network that I had at my Adyar flat. We have it switched on almost 24/7. Phew! The whole of Sunday was an ordeal for the entire Kamath family and my Uncle’s dad with the cops. I had been to the area where Eric House was, but was not allowed near, and it was also decidiously covered with cops and reporters, police jeeps and OB vans. I was back at home in no time right in front of the idiot box to follow up on that.

Meanwhile on the other side, a ship with 18 Indian crew members was hijacked in Somalia…and their demands, phew….nearly 7 crores INR…I was kidding with my cousin, saying that it must again be one of us only (a Konkani speaking bloke) since 7 is considered lucky by us…for some GOD damn reason!! 😀 What to say, the pirates are weird psychos!!!

In the evening, took part in a Ganapati Visarjan procession too but sadly could not get pics as no photography was allowed due to security reasons. Surprisingly I was asked not to click pics in both the shopping malls I visited…and I didn’t feel like going to any other mall after that. And the famous Mumbai rains showered its blessings on me and by the time I got home, I was all drenched. And the nut in me loved it!!

Monday morning we left Mumbai for Pune…to visit my aunt (dad’s sis) and cousins…and I utilized this opportunity to meet a few of our beloved Ch1 Pune Bloggers (a photo-blog on this one will follow soon! :)). It was a great feeling to meet them all in person, after having known them for over a year just by their blogs and names. In the excitement of meeting them all, I even forgot that I was on an anti-biotics (which were battling with the virus within me) course…period. Weather in Pune was pleasant…with periodic drizzles but the night was very cold.

By Tuesday evening, we were back in Mumbai welcomed by the pouring rains only to reach home all drenched. It was the last thing I wanted to happen on a vacation, to fall ill. And this rain was just the right doze that I needed to hit the sick bed. Wednesday went off “silently” trying to persuade the virus to let go of me…I must say, it was lenient enough not to sap into my energy levels. There was no fever, but there was no voice coming out of my vocal chord too…I learnt the sign language to an extent on that day…the same day that Lehmann Brothers declared bankruptcy leading to the downfall of the markets, including our ever-ready-to-fall Sensex (the Indian stock exchange)!!

Almost the entire Bangladesh Cricket team decided to join ICL, the (so called – by BCCI) rebel Cricket league. Inspite of having resigned from his Bangladesh Contract, Habibul Bashar was foolish enough to quote that he expected to play for the Bangladesh National team irrespective of having signed the ICL contracts for a staggering $200,000 per year for the next 3 years. Sadly two evenings later, he seemed to be shocked at Bangladesh Cricket board’s decision to present him (and other ICL joinees) with a 10 yr ban.

Thursday, there was no rain and inside me, no pain. It was time for some shopping as well as for some relative-visits. We were 6 hours on the roads of Mumbai (Crawford Market, Linking Road, Santacruz, Andheri, etc) and 2 hours at 2 houses…to come back home late in the evening all happy, tired and dead.

Friday looked happy and beautiful with the light drizzles till about mid-day when the news of an encounter in Delhi rattled all peace. 30 minutes of firing…2 militants dead, one caught and 2 escaped…2 policemen severely injured, of which the constable survived and the inspector sucummbed to injuries on Saturday. The people in Jamia Nagar where the encounter and firing happened blamed the police saying the encounter was fake…but if it was fake, why would any police inspector give up his life?? And in fake encounters, no AK-47s are recovered from “students”. The people also had complaints as to why the police chose close to prayer time on Jumma – a Friday – in the Ramazan period to carry out the encounter. Did they forget that the blasts took place in the holy period of Ramzan??? Hats off to those ppl…Idiots!!!

Saturday as I landed at home in Bangalore, I was relieved that nothing much had happened this day….only to be made aware of the twin bomb blasts at Islamabad in Pakistan which killed and injured several innocent people including quite a number of foreign nationals…Sigh!!

On reaching home at Chennai, I got to do something about the Wi-Fi security…the last thing I would want is to be caught for some wrong and unsuspected thing!! Though I wouldnt mind the appearing-on-the-television jig…good or bad, publicity always helps!! 😉 

From last Saturday to this one, from the Delhi blasts to the Islamabad one, from being in Mumbai to being back at home…it has been one long sad sick week…a week that wasn’t weak, but full of energy. Hmm…

 

Tagged again…quite a candid one…

This is my second tag over here…last one being the 123 book tag, tagged by Sanket…and this time, its Revs who pushed me into getting a little candid with this (self-damaging…a little atleast) tag!! Thanks Ms. Intellect!! 😀

Here I go:

6 whatever’s about me:

1) Inflation being on the higher side or not, fuel prices rising or not, recession approaching or not…just doesn’t matter to this crazy mind that I have. It just keeps running non-stop 24/7…don’t know why.
2) I adore kids, especially baby girls…don’t know why.
3) I dream a lot and interestingly remember each of the dream, but only for a short period of time…don’t know why.
4) I can remember the names of girls from my Kindergarten classes onwards, but when it comes to names of guys I go blank 80% of the time…I don’t wanna know why! 😉
5) I secretly love being the center of attention…but don’t know how to react when I’m one. Same situation applies while being elated…don’t know why.
6) I tend to make friends easily and most of them last long. Some just drift away and I don’t tend to stop them…don’t know why.
5 things I miss right now:

1) Playing chor-police with Mahi (Last played: On the last day of my 2nd grade). I loved being the chor (thief) who never missed an opportunity to get caught by the cute inspector Mahi. 😉
2) Scoring centums in Mathematics (Last scored: In 3rd grade…99 in 10th grade boards came nearest to achieving the dream). More than scoring centum, I loved the envious look on my closest competitor’s face.
3) Going down the Brigade road in Bangalore, bunking college classes just to get a glance our counterparts from the gals college. I loved the innocent flirting that happened, eye-to-eye.
4) Chai (Tea) at Amir-bhai’s theka at my engineering college backgate. I loved the combination of ginger flavoured tea along with high-fat, high-cholestrol half-boiled egg sandwich.
5) The only reason for choosing as well as attending the boring electives. The lady in Red. I just loved being in her vicinity.

10 things I wanna achieve in a decade:

1) Learn to speak technically using the right terminologies and not using the 5th grader grammar English as I tend to do now.
2) Get a post graduate degree.
3) Learn a foreign language…French, Italian or German…as well as an Instrument…Guitar preferrably.
4) Get out of this IT field.
5) Go on a trip to the himalayas at least, if not Switzerland…got to hold fresh snow.
6) Take up writing, professionally.
7) Take part in a marathon.
8) Be well settled in life…financially as well as emotionally.
9) Donate 5-10% of my monthy income…which now is very infrequent and seems impossible.
10) Give more than what I get (be it anything!)…I am trying hard now.

I have already done the 123 book tag so I am skipping it here. I tag the following people:

1) Sanket – Payback time buddy! 😉
2) Isd – My first international tag! pick it up buddy! 😀
3) Sujatha – haha…caught ya again!!
4) Rahul – Just do it, but in your way! 😉

 

Yesssss….I have been Taaaaagged!!!!!! :)

This word scares the shit outta me…Getting tagged by someone gives the feeling of being offered a complimentary noose just before one is hanged down the gallows!! But when I got this one from Sanket, I was quite suprised to see a simple one being offered to be taken to care of!!
Yesssss….I have been Taaaaagged!!!!!! 😀

Here are the 5 simple rules of the tag:
1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people, and acknowledge the person who tagged you.

And here is what I can offer (no no, I didn’t find the KS…someone flicked it with permission! ;)) you guys:

***He and Baba kissed on the cheek and he shook my hand with both of his. “Best of luck with the writing,” he said, looking me in the eye. His pale blue eyes revealed nothing of the thoughts behind them.***

The above excerpt is from Khaled Hosseini‘s “The Kite Runner“…Being a slow reader, I had not yet reached the page numbered 123 of this book. This tag made me break a rule of peeping into the future!! 😉
This book was presented to me by a good friend who became so engrossed into the lives of Amir and Hassan (the main characters in this book) that she is now a die-hard fan of Khaled Hosseini!! I have unconditionally loved it till the point where my book-mark stands now and I hope to reach its climax very soon!! 😀

Well to carry on the tag, I pass the baton to the following bloggers – whom I follow:
1) Sow
2) Sujatha
3) Jass
4) Pavithra
5) AKB

Guys…just do it!! 😉