Hah....tagged ya:-)

It’s been a looong time since I attempted a tag & so when I came across this somewhere on the web I felt like taking it up. Its called the 7 meme post. Basically it’s all about the different types of posts you have on your blog…..and a chance to show it off;-D. I thought it would be fun to to take a walk down memory lane remembering times when I put up like 8-10 posts a month[hawwww…..;-o].

What this is about:
To unite bloggers (from all sectors) in a joint endeavor to share lessons learned and create a bank of long but not forgotten blog posts that deserve to see the light of day again.

Rules:
1) Blogger is nominated to take part

2) Blogger publishes his/her 7 links on his/her blog – 1 link for each category.
The links are:
- Your most beautiful post
– Your most popular post
– Your most controversial post
– Your most helpful post
– A post whose success surprised you
– A post you feel didn’t get the attention it deserved
– The post that you are most proud of

3) Blogger nominates up to 5 more bloggers to take part.

4) These bloggers publish their 7 links and nominate another 5 more bloggers

5) And so it goes on!

Only after cutting & pasting & writing the intro and formatting the text to my liking did I realise how tough it was going to be to choose for each category. No not because I have so many options but because I didn’t feel any of them made the cut.
Since I spent 45 minutes already on this I can’t think of back tracking & scrabbling around around for something else to post;-P.

So here goes…..

Your most beautiful post- The Unwanted Third

I wrote this in my early blogging days so you may find the words & sentences not so coordinated but I chose it simply because it was a post written from the heart. It is about my neighbours who’ve moved away now…..it is about a little baby whose face still is so clear in my mind even though I haven’t seen her in years.

Your most popular post – The baddest word of them all

I got over 100 comments for this one but that’s not why I say its popular. Every single day my stats shows me keywords like ‘baddest word’ ‘world’s baddest word’ which have been typed into google and reached my page. But I doubt my post satisfies the curiosity of the people who are searching for whatever they are searching for;-D.

Your most controversial post – Hot and Happening

Controversy and me…..hilarious*Nancy wiping tears off*. I never deliberately go out of my way to court trouble either here or real life. I do realise putting up a controversial topic on my blog can get me a lot of comments but it goes against my grain. ‘Judge ye not’ is my motto. Life is too short reallyJ. Even here in this post I was just talking about the weather…..atleast I started out saying it was too hot for words & the rest just happened;-D

Your most helpful post – How to Blog

I’m this really very helpful person in real life….so helpful that people start doubting my intentions after sometime;-(. So nowadays I act most offhand when people ask me for help. And you know what…it works. Everybody is so grateful now even if I just tell them the time. Oh yes my helpful post….I reluctantly direct most of the new, full of doubts bloggers to this post and they rave, exclaim, jump up & down and claim to find it very helpful;-D

A post whose success surprised you –

I scanned thru a lot of posts & wasted maximum time on this link……to tell u the truth, the response I used to get for every post used to be surprise me all the time. When I got up in the morning & checked out the number of comments I received I would be like “Wow, do people really relate to it this muccchhh….;-o”[note: don’t go by the present scenario, I’m talking about the golden era when a whole lot of us used to live and breathe blogs;-D ] 
Take the post I have selected for example……even today I shake my head all puzzled when I see the huge response it had generated. I mean how can people can get so excited about ‘How I met my husband" sagas…..;-D.

A post you feel didn’t get the attention it deserved:

Nope I can’t think of a single one….like I told u I’m always surprised at the attention my posts get that I keep scrutinising my posts to see what is it exactly that all of u find so interesting out here;-P. But since I’m obliged to put one up I’ll choose a personal favourite - My Fathers (S)cars

The post that you are most proud of - Layali Dubai
I wrote this post on the Global village after going through a 100 links[atleast it felt like that]. When I was finally done it was time to make lunch and so closed the word document WITHOUT saving it……I had absent-mindedly clicked on the ‘don’t save’ option and the whole post just vanished. I stared stunned at the monitor in shock and then just put my head down on the keyboard and wept. Unlike most posts this post had not come out of my head, it had taken me 3 hours and then some more to get 2 pages of material.
The next day I sat down and waded through pages and pages of information again….can u just imagine how boring it must have been. Under any other circumstances I wouldn’t have bothered & would have convinced myself “Maybe it was not meant to be…”. Not really proud of the post as such, more proud of my determination to see it posted.

And that’s it guys, I really hope you’ll go thru the links…esp the old posts…..I really feel I had written some of my best posts then. Unlike now I had soo much to say thenJ.

The 5 bloggers I’m going to nominate here all have been in the blog world for more than a couple of years now and so surmising that they have enough material to choose from…

Anjuli – One of my favourite bloggers…..we go way back in cyber years and haven’t looked back sinceJ. Her posts make me go all wistful…….did u know she has done this overland drive from India to England in 1985 in a 1958 Morris Minor.

Kala – She’s Indian, born & brought up in Malaysia & lives in the US of A. She makes handcrafted jewellery especially with beads, also makes beautiful paintings and…yep very artistic and her writing reflects her personality.

Preeti Shenoy: She needs no introduction….writer, artist, mom, blogger all rolled into one. I love all her posts except for the ones where she posts her pictures. I tell you nobody has the right to look so sexy when they are touching 40;-(. And nope, before u ask..nope she wont be mad at me for telling her age. Atleast I think she won't. She's not like that. I'm very sure she won't. Oh dear.....

Roshan: The resident Doc. And writer. And philosopher. And Aquarius…like me;-D. Don’t tell anybody I told you this…*nancy furtively looks around & whispers*….he holds full-fledged conversations with God.

Smitha: She’s so darn friendly that when you read her posts it’s like having a face to face conversation with her. Anybody can make out when I’m reading her posts….I’m like nodding and nodding my head all the while:-).

My weekend went like this, what about yours....

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Naina drew this picture from one of her story-books

Nikita: u should have come for the movie with us Mama, u really missed it.

Me: I know but I got you some good books didn’t I.
[Raising voice slightly]Nainaaaaa, have u kept your timetable for tomorrow???? And Nikita, what about you????

Nikita: I already kept mine Mama. Captain Haddock was too good, he made us laugh soo much, I had the best time of my life today. Papa when is the next Tintin movie releasing???? You must take us for it. 

Me: Naina  what are you upto….have u or have u not kept ur books ready for tomorrow??? And you have to go for your bath after that. U know[directed at better- half] if I had hung around for some more time I could have met Shobha De & MT Vasudevan Nair. And Shashi Tharoor is going to be there tomorrow.  [After a pause]Gimme a word for ‘one of the radial rods which form the centre of a wheel’???

Naina[a faint impatient voice from another room]: I’m keeping, I’m keeping it in a moment.

Better-half: How many letters??

Nikita: Mama, Naina cant find her Science project book, that’s why she’s taking so much time. Snowy was really cute but he doesn’t talk like how he does in the comic books, he doesn’t even have speech bubbles with his thoughts in it and Professor Calculus wasn’t there at all in the whole movie.

Me: 5 letters & ends with an ‘e’.  What about Thomson & Thompson??

Better-half: Try Spoke

Nikita: Oh yes they were there, they were soo silly & made us laugh so much. Papa got us nachos with cheese & salsa & also a huge bucket of popcorn. It was so yummy. 

Me: Righttttt ‘spoke’ fits in perfectly. I suppose you are full now after eating all that junk.  NAINA if I get there & find out u haven’t started on your time-table.......

Nikita: Look mama I know how to wipe a smile off my face…look, look.....

Nikita plonks herself right in front of mama & smiles widely. Then places her hand on the top of her face & brings it down sharply to reveal a face so very serious. She did it 2-3 times[up, down, up, down] in quick succession making us shake our heads in amusement.

Me: Now u go change & come back to clear the table for dinner. And check what Naina’s upto…its awfully quiet in there.  The Arabic books aisles were so empty whereas the Indian stalls were so crowded.  And you know, there was  a cooking demonstration by Sophie Grey. She showed us how to make Whoopies from her book. There was a good selection of childrens book also. I didn’t want to pick up the usual Enid Blyton books this time… how are the books I got for the kids??? Good na.

Better-half who was idly scanning through the books nodded.

Nikita: MAMAAAAAAA…..Naina’s not keeping her time-table, she’s sitting here and reading a bookkkkkk.

Me: Nainaaaaa…..u have 5 minutes to pack your school bag, have your bath and present urself at the dining table otherwise no dinner for u. I’ve finished the crossword, hopefully I’ve got all of them right, don’t forget to fax it tomorrow.

A loud THUD & sounds of a scuffle reach the living room and the better-half goes to investigate. Loud protests & complaints were heard before the matter was sorted out and peace restored.

Conversation resumes during dinner.

Nikita: And u know mama Tintin screams ‘put out the fire, put out the fire’,  Captain Haddock pours some water from the bottle he was holding & it goes BOOOM. You know what he did, he poured whiskey instead of water……hahahaha.

Naina: Look at me I’m a Walrus.

Everybody turns to look at Naina who had 2 rib bones from the mutton curry sticking out of her mouth. She really did look like a walrus.

Better-half: Stop playing with your food and eat Naina.

Nikita: Papa what if we watch the movie on our TV…will we still need 3D glasses???

Papa: If we buy a 3D copy then we’ll need 3D glasses but I’m sure they’ll sell normal copies where we don’t need 3D glasses to watch them.

Naina: Whats the meaning of 3D????

Nikita: 3D is when the cartoon figures are life-like….

Papa: They'll have depth.

Nikita: yes…and 2D is like Tom & Jerry…they are flat figures….we cant see their backs....no depth like papa says.

Naina: What about vondy???

Nikita: There is nothing like that Naina.

Mama[who had blanked out the rest of the world to concentrate on her dinner suddenly came to life]: Yes there is,  Vondy means vehicle in Malayalam.

The family burst out laughing. U see Naina was asking if there was anything called 1D.


[Incase u r wondering what all that was about……Nikita was discussing the Tintin movie she and Naina had seen at the cinemas along with their father. I was talking about a book fair in Sharjah my friend & I had gone to. Time-tables, crosswords, arguments, walruses all comes with the territory]

Cold light of day

Been neglecting the blog I know. But you know what, for the first time I have not been overly worried about it. Earlier if I didn’t update atleast once a week my mind would have been preoccupied with it. Time to take a break u think;-o????

Thanks everybody who messaged and mailed me. I’m good, doing good, sorry about disappearing like that, been busy…..not the rushed busy but sort of the ‘occupied’ busy.  Have been reading a lot of books, tending to my plants, gone back to solving crosswords & Sudoku, baking a lot…..basically doing a bit of everything except blogging. To be honest haven’t looked into my blog for the past 1 week. No particular reason I can think of. Been sort of just pottering around and taking it easy.

And guess what, the weather has changed for the better out here finnnnally though the papers say that stating today it's going back to warm for another 10 days. But that’s ok…after 9 months of blistering heat & humidity, 10 days of moderate heat is like….like a breeze:-).  Just like the British, we here in the Middle East also obsess a lot about the weather. The other way around but. While the people in UK keep hoping to catch a glimpse of the sun we longingly wait for the drop in temperature. The sun which rose at 5.30am now shows itself only around 6.45 and the darkness which set in after 7pm envelopes us around 5pm itself. We just love it.

A slight drop in temperature and the whole lot of us are out in the sun. The parks are filled with families and kids running wild, the roads jam-packed; simply nobody wants to waste a day sitting inside the house. It’s another matter that some of these people maybe heading to the nearest hospitals & clinics as all sorts of infections viral and otherwise are dutifully doing their rounds. But that doesn’t stop any of us from making the most out of 'winter' we so affectionately term it as.

I have started going for early morning walks again. I had missed them so much. Nope not because I’m a health freak. No way. Oh alright initially I had started going for them thinking I’ll lose some weight. But now after 2 years I know better. It will take more than walks to shrug off the lard clinging so faithfully to me. I love my morning walks for many reasons; I walk to breathe in the crisp morning air. To watch the early morning rush swirling around me….just imagine this.....me in slow motion & the rest of the world in fast-forward. To watch a fat cat[no, it’s a really a FAT furry cat] sunning itself on the balcony. To not feel guilty about investing in a pair of expensive running shoes. To feel the cold air stinging my skin…..yesss that’s the real reason, to feel the morning chill biting into me. I just love that.

Was planning to post something here yesterday. But on a sudden whim went shopping. All alone. Leisurely checked out the whole store. Picked up a few items and brought it till the cash counter. Hesitated. I didn’t really need any of it did I. Went and kept them back in their proper places. That’s it, didn’t buy a thing. I just loved it. I saved so much money. Makes me wonder why I don’t do these things more often. Have it all planned out, I’m going again next week.

Please tell me I’m not crazy.

Did u hear about when the.....

1: Govt. of India declared 26th Oct as public holiday to celebrate the end of Ra One promotions...!

2: Govt of India just announced Rs 50,000 relief to all those who watched RA1 and Rs.25,000 for those who left at interval.

3: Breaking News...! Crocin, Disprin, Combiflam, Adol Panadol, Diclomol and all Headache Tablets out of Stock after RA.ONE's release

4: Salman to SRK after watching Ra.One, "Mujh par ek ehsaan karna, dubara aisi movie mat banana"

5: Rahul Gandhi to meet people affected after seeing Ra.One.

6: Even Ra.mu doesn't wanna waste time by watching Ra.one...!

7: Nahi chala RA.ONE...! Ab SRK bolega buy one get one aur ek week ke baad bolega, RA.ONE coming soon on Sahara.One and Star.one.

8: All bachelors must see Ra.One to understand what PAIN means to married men.

9: Get RA.ONE under Lokpal bill...! Put people behind bars who made such movie.

10: As SRK hates losing & hates messages he is surely going to take a break from Twitter. Now we came 2 know why he joined Google+ before RA1 release.

11: Faking News: 100 people committed mass suicide after watching Ra.one!