I've been awarded a Tag:-))

Deeps thinks I’m this very resourceful, adaptable, nifty, useful, flexible kind of blogger. What other reason could be there for her to award me “The Versatile Blogger" award;-D.
Thanks Deeps, love my award & am going to put it up immediately. There is also a tag attached to this award called the random tag. I’m supposing the ‘random’ has been added deliberately to show how ‘versatile’ one can get in a single post;-P. Anyways here goes….

The rules of this tag:

 Add the Versatile Blogger Award picture to your Blog Post
 Thank the Blogger who nominated you
 Share 7 Random things about yourself
 Nominate 15 fellow Bloggers
 Inform the Bloggers of their nomination

I always thought almost all the posts on my blog are kinda random but now I’ve got a hepper word for it.....Versatile........I’m a Versatile Bloggah...….haahhh.

Alright let me get randomer than usual…..

First things first….

Update on the chess learning: I already told u about beating Naina but guess what, last week I also managed to win against Nikita. And it was a convincing win!!!! But now nobody wants to play chess with me anymore;-(. Nope haven’t mustered enough confidence to challenge the better-half yet;-P.
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In the inside is a cycling track

I found a park, quite close to where I live, which has a good walking track. It shows us how many metres we have covered and I just love that….as of now I’m covering around 1.5kms in 30 mins…everyday…..cool huh.
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Just realised, shdn't have clicked it against a white bckgrnd

One of Nikita’s classmate's father had to be rushed to India for an emergency surgery in December. The child missed almost a month of school. When her mother worried about the notes I got her to send across some of the child’s notebooks with Nikita. Whenever I had a bit of free time I would update all the books. When the child came back she[and mother] were thrilled to see her books……. all completed. She got Nikita some knick-knacks from India and one among them was this cute little keychain of a zoozoo. And her father is fine now and well on the road to recovery:-). ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


Can't wait to try out some of the recipes:-))

The Gulf News[newspaper] has this Magazine called Friday which we get every friday[duhhhh…]. It has 2 competitions in which I faithfully take part every week: the crossword and a quiz on Books & their Authors. Every once in a while I win a Dhs.100 voucher[from the quiz] to spend in any Jashanmal Bookstore. I usually get books for the kids with the voucher but this time I picked up a book I had been eyeing for a long time. The kids were not very pleased;-D.
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Barun Sobti as Arnav Singh Raizada

I’m going to tell u a secret now….. I have fallen hard for a fictional character called Arnav Singh Raizada. I chanced upon him in this show called Iss Pyaar Ko Kya Naam Doon on Star Plus when I went home to India last August. In real life I would probably run a mile away from him; ASR treats the female protagonist with scant respect. He mocks her at every opportunity and manhandles her all the time. His excuse: he has a PAST. He stares, glares, smirks, ….at her and does everything a hero of a show shouldn’t. But one small smile from him and I’m ready to tolerate another 30 episodes of the same nonsense;-(.
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The Virgin MegaStore

Went to one of our favourite booknooks one weekend & I noticed they had changed their layout a bit. I was looking around trying to get my bearings when I saw some books piled up on the floor. The book on the top had a very interesting title “Books for sitting”. How very novel, I thought & tried to open it. I tugged and tugged thinking it was stuck. I know, I know I can be so dim sometimes;-/.
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I spent 15 minutes trying to make this pic vertical;-(

The shopping festival is going on full swing. Visited the Global village last weekend. We did the usual rounds and guess what I picked up amongst other things….a trolley shopping bag from the Chinese Pavilion. I've seen so many people on the Metro with these trolleys and kept thinking it would be very convenient for times when I went shopping for groceries alone. So now I don’t have to wait for taxis anymore, simply load my trolley[it can carry upto 40kgs....just saying;-D] and get back home on the Metro itself.

Phewww…….and that’s it….7 random things about me.

Now I would like to award and tag...…

Amrita

An Open Book

Anita Jeyan Sandeep

Destination Infinity

Horizon

Jyothi

Lan

Limenlemons

Lostworld

Nilu

Snow

Swaram

Tharani

Uma

Vaidegi j

Spreading some cheer:-))

~ A blog is a personal diary. A daily pulpit. A collaborative space. A political soapbox. A breaking-news outlet. A collection of links. Your own private thoughts. Memos to the world.
~ unknown blogger

When we[as in most of us:-)] decide to blog, in the beginning it is just for ourselves. A private place where we can let down our hair, write away our frustrations or give free rein to our thoughts. At the most we want our friends and kin to read what we write. As we explore further we realize if we stretched out a hand there is a wonderful world out there ready to receive us with open arms.

This is exactly what happened to me. Initially it was just about scribbling down some thoughts and incidents…. maybe the kids would love to know how mama was when she was younger, how the events in her life shaped her life, this way my family & friends who lived far away could be in touch with what was happening with me without me straining to write to everybody individually....u see the gains:-).

And then there was the fact that I always was interested in People, their lives, their thoughts…it was but natural to slowly start reaching out to other bloggers who had different viewpoints to share inturn opening up my mind and world.

And the rest as they say is history & lets leave it at that[meaning surely you wouldn’t want to waste time reading about it ONCE MORE]. Now, apart from the comments I love receiving I am also ecstatic about the awards I get. Lot of old-timers[Bloggers I mean] nowadays view these awards with jaundiced eyes & don’t quite believe in them anymore but for me they are all special. In real life I don’t think I ever came first or received awards for anything…no, no thts not true, I did come 1st in 1st standard and 2nd in the Lemon & Spoon race in the 3rd standard.

Ok thats it enough introduction, now coming straight to the point I thought I'd spread some cheer at the beginning of the year itself by giving away the lovely awards I received in 2009.

First things first, I want to thank my blogger-friends Athivas, Blunt edges, Colourmesunshine, Dil Se, Elegant Chic, Passionate Goof, Indianhomemaker , Lostworld , Nu, Rashworld, Shalom, Shayari, Swaram, Thethoughtfultrain, Titaxy for all these wonderful awards I have displayed below.

It gives me great pleasure to give away these awards to deserving bloggers as a token of my appreciation. I know I know I must sound like one of those pompous characters but it’s exactly what I feel……I love receiving awards but more importantly I adore giving them away. Initially I intended to write a few sentences about each blogger I was giving the awards to but gave that idea up half-way as this is a long post and it was taking me ages to just link each one of you.


The 1st award is the International Bloggers Community Award!!!!

"Be a proud member of the International Bloggers Community! " is their tagline.
The Award goes to:
Anjuli
Colours
Destination nowhere
Lakshmi
Nilu
Prabodh
Smita

Now the Rules say:
1. Link the person who tagged you.
2. Copy the image above, the rules and the questionnaire in this post.
3. Post this in one or all of your blogs.
4. Answer the four questions following these Rules.
5. Award this to 7 friends on your Blog list. 6. Go to BLoGGiSTa iNFo CoRNeR (PLEASE DO NOT CHANGE THIS LINK) at http://bloggistame.blogspot.com and leave the URL of your Post in order for you/your Blog to be added to the Master List.
7. Have Fun!
Questions & My Answers:
1. The person who tagged you: Thethoughtfultrain, the others who tagged me after her are Athivas, GoofyMumma and Shayari.
2. His/her site's title and url: http://thethoughtfultrain.wordpress.com/2009/06/
3. Date when you were tagged: 30th June 2009
4. Persons you award & tag are: displayed above __________________________________________________________
I’d like to award the One Lovely Blog Award to:
The Idle Devil
Jayasree
Deepti
Never Ending Memories
PinsNAshes
______________________________________________________________

"The Prémio Dardos is given for recognition of cultural, ethical, literary, and personal values transmitted in the form of creative and original writing. These stamps were created with the intention of promoting fraternization between bloggers, a way of showing affection and gratitude for work that adds value to the Web."

Awarding the Premio Dardos Award to...
Athivas
c'est la vie
Insignia
Nu
Roshni Mitra Chintalapati
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The Sweet Blogger Award is awarded to my favourite food bloggers...
Lan for Cheenachatti
Maria for Marias Menu
OpenBook for Look who's cooking too
Renu for Meri Rasoi
Shabs for Shab's Cuisine
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The Blog Friends award goes to those blog-friends who are silent most of the time but when I write a really good post they never hesitate to tell me how much they liked it:-) ...

Archana Gawde
Cool_Moon
Divya
Doli
Pooja Mishra
Pujathakur
Saima
SandyaS
Sulo badri
The Girl from Lokhandwala
____________________________________________________________

The I Love your Blog Award goes to those bloggers who share information in a fun and interesting way. I enjoy reading whatever they post. Its a pity they dont post more often.
Anusha
Bikerdude
Jira
Ordinary Guy
Piper
Preethi
SGD
Spontaneous Mini
WannabeWriter
________________________________________________________________

The Superior Scribbler Award doesnt need any explanation:-). It goes to...
Wanderlust
Karmickids
Sindhu
Suma
Vivek Patwardhan

The rules that accompany this award are.

* Each Superior Scribbler must in turn pass The Award on to 5 most-deserving Bloggy Friends.
* Each Superior Scribbler must link to the author & the name of the blog from whom he/she has received The Award.
* Each Superior Scribbler must display The Award on his/her blog, and link to This Post, which explains The Award.
* Each Blogger who wins The Superior Scribbler Award must visit this post and add his/her name to the Mr. Linky List. That way, we'll be able to keep up-to-date on everyone who receives This Prestigious Honor!
* Each Superior Scribbler must post these rules on his/her blog.
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The ‘Triple Awards’ standing for "blogs of attitude and gratitude, a member of a proud sisterhood, and a best friend of all blogs" goes to all those bloggers with whom I feel a kinship even though I've never met them......sort of like whenever we meet, we are going to hit it off immediately:-)
The award goes to...
Meira
My space
Thethoughtfultrain
Rashmi
Sadiya
Shades of Grey
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The Award “Your Blog is Super” goes to those bloggers who are very popular & well-known in the blogging community. And they are...
Blunt edges
Hitch writer
Indianhomemaker
Indyeah
Smitha
Solilo
Swaram
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The 'Awesome Blogger Buddy Award' goes to Indian Bloggers I know across the globe


And they are:
BlueMist from Portugal
Mathew from Germany
Deeps from Qatar
J P Joshi from India
Masood from UAE
Onlooker from Kuwait
Ramesh from China
Rohini from USA
Roopa from Indonesia
Snow from Canada
Sukku from Malaysia
Sunshine from Singapore
Swathy from Australia
Vinoo John from UK

I also want to award this to 3 bloggers who come to my page regularly from Asia-pacific, Holland, Manama-Bahrain, Montego Bay-Jamaica. I’d love it if you’ll introduce urself but if you wish to remain silent I’m fine with that too but please do accept the Award:-)).
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The Superstar Award is very special to me and I’m awarding this to...
Dhanya - There is honesty in her writing......and clarity, I love the way she finds joy in everyday matters.
Kochu Thressiamma from Parel Tank - A seasoned blogger, who doesnt hesitate to pen what she thinks...and it could about anything from Politics to Michael Jackson to Education to Malayalam Cinema . She's made me cry & then laugh in the very next post.
Preethi Shenoy from Just a Motheroftwo - She writes thoughtful, meaningful posts about life. I love visiting her blog and always come away feeling inspired.
Shobhaa De - The way her thoughts flow through her fingers is amazing. Her tongue-in-cheek humour & pun-intended posts are my favourite though she can write about anything under the sun and make it sound interesting.
______________________________________________________________

The 'Kreativ Award' goes to all those Bloggers who share their creativity on their blog whether it is in the form of the amazing photographs they shoot or the beautiful Art they create.

And it goes to...
Colourmesunshine
G
Lee
Lostworld
Maddy
Sakshi
SJ
Sneo
Sriram
Titaxy
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The Honest Scrap Award comes with a tag and is awarded to all those bloggers whose openess shines thru their pages.


And it goes to…
Amrita
Anishthomas
Balvinder Singh
Brocasarea
J P Joshi
Passionate Goof
Roop
SV
Tara
Umsreflections

The rules are:
Tell your readers 10 things about you that they may or may not know, but are true.
Tag 10 people with the award, and be sure to let them know they’ve been tagged (a quick comment on their blog will do).
Link back to the blogger who tagged you.
_____________________________________________________________

The 'Blogger Friends Award' goes to bloggers I have had the pleasure of meeting[virtually i mean:-)] in the past year...
Ash
Ashwathy
BrAiN FrEEzE
Deep
Elegant Chic
Elizabeth
Jisha
Mads
Rekha
Tanushree Pillai
Varsh
______________________________________________________________
The Addicting Blog Award goes to all those bloggers whom I need no excuse to visit:-))


Agnes
Antarman
Butterfly
I scribble here
Prashanti
Rakesh
Shalom
Sparkling
Winnie
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And the 'Butterfly Award' is a favourite award, one which I had already received the previous year but Swaram awarded it to me once again and so I’d like to award it to...

Chatterbox
Datsme
Dil Se
Enigma
Gayathri-vishwanathan
Sara
____________________________________________________________
And finally the Nameless Award which comes with a tag & I’m awarding it to bloggers who’ve taken an unofficial break. This is a gentle nudge from me to get them back to blogging. And it goes to...
Abraham Menacherry
DeeplyDip
Former Sansmerci
Limenlemons
Mystery
Shayari

The rules are:
Tell your readers 7 things about you that they don’t know about u but are true.
Tag 7 people with the award, and be sure to let them know they’ve been tagged.
Don’t forget to link back to the blogger who tagged you.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Thats it folks!!!! Being slower than most people, it took me more than a week to put this together. I fervently hope I have mentioned everybody I know in the blog-world, if u dont see ur name please know that it was a genuine error. If u'll let just gimme a teeny-weeny hint I'll award u this Wonderfullest, Bestest Award that I have stashed away inside just for this purpose.
And not the least, CONGRATULATIONS everybody and a BIG Thank U to all of you for your amazing blogs and all the lovely comments + motivation this past year. I appreciate you all more than U'll ever know.


p.s: I'm going to start off here to all ur blogs to let u know that u've been awarded. Incase u reach this space before I reach ur blog, please claim ur Award and make it easy for me:-)).

p.p.s: If by any chance u have been awarded more than once, I swear it was not intentional;-D

This makes Five

I'm on a roll here. Just picked up another Pretty Award from Agnes......

I would like to award this to my Good Friend Manu[who has read all my posts but commented for the 1st time just last week] & a few fellow bloggers whom I have had the pleasure of meeting after my Commentophobia post:

Meira

Sansmerci

Sindhu

Smrithi

SR

Since Agnes hadn't put up any specific rules for the Award, I''ll take the liberty here:

Display the Award in your page

Award them to your favourite commentators.

Ask them to forward it to their favourite commentators.

And dont forget to link their page to their names.

Go ahead, spread the cheer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Edited to add: Just found out about the Mumbai attacks. My heart goes out to the families & friends of the people who lost their lives.

I've got 4 of them now

"I don't deserve this award, but I have arthritis and I don't deserve that either." -- Jack Benny, famous Radio & Film Personality

The above quote sort of sums up what I feel now but I can't deny the sheer joy of receiving Awards. When I go to some of the sites of the oldtimers, they have so many of these "Honest Blogger Award, Cutest Blogger Award, Foggiest blogger Award........" displayed very proudly & I always spend some time examining them.

In a year or two I will attempt some changes in my page layout wherein I'll make it 3 column page & fill the left side of my page with only Awards.

In the meantime I patiently wait for my blogger-friends to award them to me.

The 2nd reason why I love receiving Awards is to grandly award them to my set of blogger-friends. I sort of feel like Julia Morley announcing the Miss World Contest winners.

Now before I start sounding like one of those awardee's who embarrass the audience by talking too much on stage.....

Here goes.........

I have received the Butterfly Award from Lan & Winnie

And the award goes to .....

Agnes

Anjuli

Deeplydip: For 'Styalogue'

Goofy Mumma: For 'Quack Rites'

ISH

JP Joshi: For 'My Philosophical Thoughts'

Maddy

My Space

Shalom: For your Photo-Blog

Winnie The Poohi: For your Poetry blog:-)

The Rules are:

1. Put the logo on your blog.

2. Add a link to the person who awarded you.

3. Nominate 10 other blogs.

4. Add links to those blogs on yours.

5. Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs.

___________________________________________

I also received this Proximity Award from Winnie

There is a clear-cut message which accompanies this Award:

"This blog invests and believes the PROXIMITY- nearness in space, time and relationships. These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers I'm passing it on to these wonderful bloggers:"

It is to be passed to 8 other bloggers for the sentiments above.

And they are....

Bins

Balvinder Singh: For Frankly Speaking Blog

ISH

Renu: For your Rasoi:-)

Scribbler

Sukku

Sunshine

Wannabe Writer

It's been a long post in the sense that it took me ages to link everybody up. So I am not exactly in a stable state to whip up a brilliant conclusion. And since I began my post with a quote, I take your leave with one too.....

“To those of you who received honours, awards and distinctions, I say Well Done. And to the C students I say, YOU too can be President of United States." George W Bush, 43rd US president since 2001.

Awards' Night

Last week I was delighted with the number of comments my post got, this week I’m overjoyed by the fact that I won 'Awards' for my blog.

Renu has very kindly awarded me the

"Brillante Weblog Award".

"This is given to sites and blogs that are smart and brilliant both in their content and their design"

Since the design of my blog site is nothing much to write home about, I assume she thinks the contents of my blog are worth a glance which ofcourse I take as a HUGE compliment.

So going by the rules I’d like to present this award to.....

Agnes: A globe-trotter, who has a very interesting site with details of her travels & humanitarian works, just like how it is.

Bins: Yeah, she’s been inactive for the past 2 months. But when she writes she puts her heart into it. Bins, get back into the groove & kick some butt.

ISH: I simply adore the way she writes but wish she’d post more often. I also love her ‘moods’ button:-D

Prashanth: An intense blogger who covers all view-points, that as a commentor I'm often lost for words. The quotes he puts up for each subject are excellent.

Preethi: An avid blogger who has started working recently, as a result of which her blog is suffering. A terrific sense of humour coupled with intensive research about her blog subjects makes her a very interesting blogger.

Wannabe: I enjoy her easy style of writing. And her site & layout are totally eye-catching. I only wish she’d post more often.

Winnie the Poohi: She is totally technology savvy & one can see all sorts of interesting gadgets at her site. Not the least, a very interesting story-teller with a poetic bend.

Now the rules are:
1. When you receive the prize you must write a post showing it, together with the name of who has given it to you, and link them back.
2. Choose a minimum of 7 blogs (or even more) that you find brilliant in their content or design.
3. Show their names and links and leave them a comment informing they were prized with ‘Brillante Weblog'.
4. Show a picture of those who awarded you and those you give the prize(optional).
5. And pass it on!

Once again I stress this is totally SPECIAL coz it’s my First Award……….

Now some of the people reading this might just think with an eyebrow raised “why, she’s acting like she’s going to keep getting them awards all the time”……..

…..ahem, I just received another Award from Winnie the Poohi

“The Bloggers Friends Forever Award”

And the Award goes to:

Anjuli: We met over a death post but I’d like to think a friendship was born.

Balvinder Singh: I know you’ll be surprised by this award coz we’ve known each other for just a short while but your blog & its contents brings a patriotic feeling within me.

Lan: U & I share a love for reading. While you actively pursue it, I stand afar & admire you for the same.

Renu: Met you quite by chance over a post on Gulab Jamun tips. I tried it out & it came out awesome. Boyyyy, am I glad I commented:-D. Just imagine, I could have missed my 1st award.

Sunshine from Singapore: You are special coz you are my first lurker who delurked. I sorta felt like a celebrity for sometime:-D

& a special for

Sunshine from India: You came out of nowhere & loyally commented on all my posts. Just as suddenly you disappeared. Come back soon…this award awaits u.

And here are the rules for the Blogging Friends Forever Award:
1. The winner may put the logo on his/her blog.
2. Put a link to the person you received the award from.
3. Nominate 5 blogs.
4. Put links to the blogs.
5. Leave a message for your nominees.

So go ahead, spread the cheer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!