Minuscule world, this blog world!

Yea, so we blog. We and post stories and fiction and memoirs and pictures and rants and leg-pullers and all kinds of stuff.

We make friends, and ‘sisters’ and ‘brothers’ and ‘soul mates’ and all kinds of relationships.

And there are times when you come across a blog through another’s, read through, like it and comment on it. And that person comes back and reads through, likes it and comments on yours.

And it’s all the normal bloggy stuff.

Until.

She (evidently a dog lover and still nursing memories of Goofy) shows pictures of your long lost pet to her husband. And, is in for a surprise when the husband, instead of noticing the pet that was intended to be noticed, notices the man standing by it and says (not verbatim) “Oh! I know him. This is xxxx who lived behind the Vanchiyoor Court (Trivandrum, Kerala). I’m sure.”

So she mails you and asks “Hey. I was showing pictures of Pumbaa to my husband when he looks at your dad and says he’s very familiar. Did he live in Vanchiyoor”? And so, a trail of mails goes to and forth till you realize you’re no longer just blog-friends, but relatives too!

And my dad knows not just her husband, but his brothers, the house they lived in, and even knew one of the brothers who was in the Income Tax!

This weekend, I realised Shail (Shail’s Nest) is my dad’s uncle’s brother-in-law’s wife’s first cousin’s wife! 😀 😀 😀 Yey! How much closer can we get?

Okie! In simpler terms, the brother-in-law mentioned above is just like my grandpa to me. So, that makes us pretty close relatives! 😛 😛 😛

And to think I’ve seen the name “Shail” and noticed her comments in many of my blog friends’ comment sections since a loooooong time, but never bothered to link through and read it… and the week that we actually linked to one another, we realize we’re relatives.

It isn’t just a small world, it’s a rather minuscule one!

Blogging rocks! 🙂

Nightmares for rent

“Where will I keep the garbage? Will someone come to collect it?”
*no…we usually used to eat it the next day*

“Can I move the furniture around?”
*dude, you decide. Stop calling me for every simple thing*

“Who hung all these pictures here?”
*they got bored and hung themselves*

“Whose picture is that?”
*go figure instead of wasting my time*

“The stars in that room scared me. Who stuck them here?”
*thank god you’ve never looked up at the sky!*

“There’s a weird sound every night. What’s that?”
*probably the neighbours’ reaction when they saw you*

“What have you told the tenants upstairs about me?”
*the truth…which explains the weird night sound*

“What will I tell them if they ask me how I know you?”
*there isn’t much, is there? :P*

“Blah blah blah…”
*tearing my hair out*

“You know what? I don’t have Gtalk or Gmail at office :(”
*overjoyed at the prospect of limited bugging*

“I took a phone connection with 400 free messages and low-rate calls.”
*tearing the remaining hair out and thinking ‘why oh why did I do this!?:roll:*

“Blah blah blah…”
*keeps telling him my parents are the house owners, not me, but he doesn’t seem to hear*

.
When you know a crazed man, you generally stay away. You try and be polite (though you snub him every chance you get), but you generally keep away, keeping your family also away from him. You try to limit your connection with him to a few words over a chat or across a blog.

But at times, your sense of judgment fails you, and you break those rules, become friends, introduce him to your family… and WORST of all, rent out your house to him! 😮 That too, a good house in a good locality. And what’s more!? It’s fully furnished, fully furnished, fully furnished (there you go: three times over :P) too!

Damn! Now, before long, the house would be virtually invisible. All that passers-by would be able to see would be a huge blob of cobwebs 🙂 Serves you right, Priya, for renting out your house to that wannabe, pseudo-spiderman whom you’re always at war with.
😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀

Oh…  Hi Vimmuuu… hows life? It’s always a pleasure talking to you!

Technorati, list my friend!

A friend wanted to know what Technorati was…and how she could get her blog linked in there! Apparently, everytime she tried, she got an error message.

Well, how would I know? So, I went ahead, researched it, figured out how to claim a blog on Technorati, followed every step and finally got to doit.

Only, now they want me to paste this code here: 7VBURM8BWT3B, so they can come verify that I’m the real author of this blog. Sigh!

So, here you go, Technorati. Now, could you please help my friend put up her blog in your database too!? 🙂

“I’m an open blog…er er…open book”

It sometimes surprises me how much of an open ‘book’ we all are through our blogs. I’m sure if I meet most of the people in my blog roll, there’s at least one thing I know about them which does not fall into categories like “Where’s his native place”, “Where’s she working”, “Is she from Delhi”, “Is he married”, and so on.

There’s so much that’s shared on a blog: in the form of tags (am sure they were invented by a stalker ;)), memories, feelings, incidents, rants, and what not!

I remember an age when we were asked not to put up our pics on the Internet (for fear of misuse); not to put up personal info about ourselves (now, personal info is just bank account number and the like); not to trust people you see online (20/F/Delhi may very well be 75/M/Uganda); not to correspond with people who write personal mails to you, if you don’t really know them personally. All bleh!

I guess, especially for bloggers, there’s no fear of being open about themselves. When you blog, you’re being yourselves. Your readers have different opinions, perspectives, ideas; they may not always agree with you, and they are open about that too!

When we read something about a person on a blog, like a tag on his/her fav 10 eatables, 3 fav dresses, or 5 fav movies/songs, we just tend to believe it and relate those things with that person. We don’t question it, or doubt its
authenticity. Somehow, hypocrisy seems to hit a firewall when a blog is opened 😀

Just the other day, I got a mail from Uma, based on a comment I had put in her blog. She wanted to know a few details about taking up literature (for her daughter’s higher edu). One mail turned into a thread of 5 or 6..and finally she said “the speed of thought is so much more. we can talk in person” and we exchanged mobile numbers!! (Damn! That reminds me, I haven’t called her up yet. I will, Uma; today, for sure ;))

I will not sit and wonder if this “Uma, mother of two girls” is actually a 50-year old stalker looking forward to whisper indecencies over the phone! 😀 In fact, if anything, we both felt real good to be actually writing long mails to each other, like we’ve known each other for the past 300 years! 😀

Apart from letting us be our true self (and not worry what others will think), blogging does a lot to all of us: though we don’t realise it much. It tells us a lot about perspectives, cultures, current affairs (and people’s views on them), likes, dislikes, trends, cities, beliefs, and what not!
What do you all feel? Is there an inherent danger in being so open to the world? Do you think some disaster could come out of it? Do you think someone could take advantage of you after figuring out the kind of person you are? Do you think it’s not the best thing to be such an “open book”?

I, let me admit, don’t. Here’s to all the lovely bloggers…and their even lovelier blogs! You all make life much more fun 😀

Alive and kicking…

Don’t know what’s happened to me; guess this is the price one pays for being a full-time “writer”…or rather “copywriter”. All I know to do now is to ‘copy’ and ‘write’ 😀

Gosh! my last post was EXACTLY 5 whole months back. Sheesh! I need to get a life! Seriously!

I don’t even remember the many excellent bloggers and their different styles of writing. Damn! And I don’t even think half the people in my blogroll writes anymore 😦 It was a damn good bunch out there. Where are all you guys?? Have you all become professional copywiters as well? 😀 😀

Well, someone once told me it is extremely tough to come out of it once you succumb to “writers’ block”. In my defence, I must say that I’ve fallen into that trap one too many times — and crawled out of it successfully: only to fall into a freshly dug one 😉

So, apologies to you people who has my blog on their feeds (because you’d be now reading this not out of interest and extreme happiness at a much-too-frequent “comeback” of mine, but because your feed reader must’ve forced you to!), but you’ll be seeing more of such nonsensical posts in the days to come — until one of you get exasperated enough to dig a new one for me to fall into.

Till then, cheers — and have a great bloggy life 🙂

P.S.: A namesake once told me she loved the use of “pink over grey” in one of my posts. I dedicate this one to her 😀

A post a day keeps the block away…

…but if the block lasts too long, better throw the blog block away! 😀

I have forgotten to write; people think I’ve died; and Google and Technocrati doesn’t throw up show my ‘alphabets’ any longer.

Disgusting state of affairs. Really.

All these days, I convinced myself that I’m overworked and can’t really spare anytime for blogging. I was just fooling myself, I guess. I realise that every blogger who’s consistent and active, is not sitting at home full time 😉

But well. Never having even washed a plate at home, managing a whole house by myself (even with a hell lotta help from Suraj) is definitely stressing me out. I kept telling myself that it’s a phase in life, which’ll pass.

What almost passed away was ME! 😀 I have been sick in bed for 2 weeks now — with a broken back! Thank God, my job profile allows me to work from home — else, we’d have ended up financially broke as well.Anyway, in this 2-week running is when I realised that even though I’d been sitting at home, I haven’t been blogging. Disgusting, really!

So well, bad back or block, I decided that blogging shouldn’t be affected. Am sure all the bloggers who used to read me have forgotten my existence by now.

Hope to hang in here for more than a week at a stretch. Then I’m sure I’ll come back to blogging full-time!

In the meantime, I hope to be alive in this crazy city (for me to be blogging everyday!). I pray that random people don’t burst into my house and stab me to death (if they try looting me, they’ll probably stab me 10 more times; Attention, thieves: there’s no money/gold here!); I pray that we don’t get waylaid on empty roads and robbed of our bike (which is almost falling apart now); I pray that Hindu activists who protest against everything ‘non-hindu’ don’t protest against my existence; I pray that those find-whatever-excuse-you-can-to-beat-up-people types don’t catch me in a jeans and beat me up; I pray that I’ll be fortunate to leave Bangalore soon, while life and sanity are still there in me 😉

The only good that’s come out of the-latest-violence-in-Bangalore is that I don’t lose my arguments anymore. Every argument that I usually have with Suraj always ends up in some consensus or the other. The only one that never does — which is better: Bangalore or Bombay? He’s always for the former; me, the latter. And the last point always was “Bombay’s too dangerous.” Now that topic is dormant. Period.

P.S.: My blog crossed 10,000 hits! I’m surprised, happy, ecstatic! Thanks a lot, all you people, for making that happen! Since I hadn’t been active, I’m sure a lot of optimistic people kept visiting, hoping I’d write something 😀 . Sorry for having let you down; hope never to do that again 😉

P.S. of P.S.: Thanks a ton, Harsh and Sahaja, for considering me worthy of the “Cute’s Blogger Award” and “Lovely Blogger Award”. It meant a lot! Thanks again!

two-thousand-eight to nine…

So far, the year’s been baaad! I stepped into the new year within the grips of a flu; then I re-joinedoffice and have made my life a living hell; I find myself in the presence of someone that petrifies me all day long (I do NOT mean my husband :D); have breakfast-less mornings; I get almost no time to blog — and am losing out on the blogging spirit 😦 ; Makara Sankranthi turned out to be Maaraka (dangerous) Sankranthi — the special Karnataka lunch left me food-poisoned; but worst of all, I saw Chandni Chowk to China (CCTC)! Sigh! 😦

I hope the script here says "Don't watch Chandi Chowk To China"

I thought I was done falling prey to un-sahikkable Bollywood flicks with the death of 2008 — when I sat through 3 hours of torture, a.k.a. Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi. But apparently not! CCTC is living proof for the fact that Warner Bros can also go wrong. The film has once of the loosest script, irrelevant links of characters to one another; comic strips and dialogues that wouldn’t bring a laugh out of people even at gun-point (well, there were some funny one-liners, but countable within 5 fingers)… I just cannot believe Warner Bros agreed to making this movie! Apparently, they are afraid that it may fall prey to piracy. Have mercy!

There were a few scenes which made people sitting around me comment “This scene was not really necessary.” All I had to say to that (though I kept it to myself) was that “the entire film was not necessary.”

Well, now I know how the year is going to take it’s toll on me! God save me!

P.S.: Anyone who still wants to go watch it, please convince yourselves it’s going to be the worst ever film you ever saw. You just might not mind it too much, then! 😀 Do this, and you’ll be greatful to me! 😉

entries, exits, comebacks and what not!

No more disclaimers…no more apologies…no more promises — because apparently, life takes it’s own course, without really caring what one wants from it 😀

When I came back to the blogworld after a 5-month break, I was acclaimed as The Comeback Queen and all that 😉 . Then, in another week’s time, I went on break-2 😀 . My parents had come from Trivandrum to spend a week here — and I was literally banned from using the Internet (even Gmail, not to mention WP!). They left a week back and I logged into AlphabetWorld and opened a “New Post” page, simultaneously opening MirrorCracked — and lo! I was addicted to Klueless with immediate effect!

Though I opened my blog everyday since 26th to post something, Klueless kept me glued to it. When I finally completed Klueless-1, I decided to post about it. But I made the mistake of opening Klueless-2 before opening my blog! I was glued again! 😀

Finally,I’ve broken free (no, I haven’t completed it). I ‘m halfway through Klueless-2. But something much shocking came up — I got to know that MirrorCracked was suspended! I found a dangerously-close-to-tears Nikhil on Gmail chat, deep down in the dumps, saying that WP had suspended his blog! Think of the lack of laughs in the world that would have caused! It would have been a global disaster.

But well, the issue has been solved. And that made me aware of the existence of a certain AlphabetWorld! 😀 Man, I still remember how I almost drowned myself when I lost my Gmail password once; I can only imagine Nikhil‘s depression. To lose a blog would be akin to losing a much valued part of your life — or rather, in this case — a much popular part! So, thought I owed my blog a post — probably the last one of 2008. Am sure I’ll go gayab again 😀 😉

Anyways, this year is also coming to an end…and am I glad! This year — especially this month — has been bad for me. Root canal treatment done twice (on the same tooth!); loss of my ATM Card and a few bucks with it; professional pressure; a harrowing life-and-death situation, thanks to a so-called friend; need to give-in to a lot of demands; and in this month: a bad back-pain [nothing new! (rolling eyes)]; a fight with my best friend (it’s been solved, thank God!); numerous cuts on almost all my fingers; and a bad fever!

Oh yea…good things did happen — I got a 5-month break from work (and Bangalore), had fun at home, got married, went to Manali and played in the snow! 😀

Well, it’s only when a year bids goodbye that you can abuse it :D. No fear of repercussions in the coming days ;). And so, for that same reason, here’s extending a warm welcome for 2009! Hope it turns out to be a wonderful one! I hope to be more regular in blogging…and Vimal‘s interesting competition for the Malayali (or pseudo-malayali) bloggers seems to be a good starter 😉 .

Wishing all you guys and gals a lovely, happening year ahead!
🙂 Happy 2009! 🙂

(-: Here I am :-)

Hey people ! Guess who’s back!?
The terrorists? No way!
Santa? Naah.
No, no, not Christmas either!

C’mon! I’m referring to myself here! Gosh! Obviously, am the only one who’s glad! 😀

After a break that seemed almost eternal, I’m back in AlphabetWorld!  The machines (read as my brain) here were apparently getting used to doing nothing. So a lil’ tap at the right side and a harder tap later, it’s started creaking a bit. The print might not be too fine the first few days, but I hope I’ll be pardoned.

I did a rough count of the number of posts I’ve not read since I went on the break — and I’m still reeling under the impact! If I start reading them, one after the other, I might — just might — complete it before they light the candles on my 78th b’day 😀 . I think it’ll be safest for my eyes if I pretend to have read them all — or rather that I’d never been on a break! (Ok, guys…I’m kidding! I’m craving to read ’em all — but can’t at one go…I’ll take the tortoise’s path and read them at at a slow pace.)

My last post was on Nov 1…and when I popped into Vimal‘s blog to count his new posts, I noticed my name, my latest post’s name and the words “5 weeks ago” in his blogroll. Now you know what drove me in here so soon 😀 .
5 weeks! I was aghast…enraged at myself!

*****

I quickly signed in to undo the damage — and oh my god! WordPress has changed! For a moment, I thought I’d signed into some other site! And then The Greatest Guide-Writer Of All Times tells me it’s the new Crazyhorse look! And yea, it rocks!

*****

I saw that I’d been bestowed with the following awards:
Butterfly Award by both Verbivore and Vimal;
A Trophy by Vimal;
and
Este Blog investe e acredita na – Proximidade! by Vimal

Thanks a lot, you guys! (If I were dumb, I’d think it was for staying away from the blog world 😉 )

I pass these honours on to (following the rules of the Proximidade one!) 8 others:
Verbivore, Rekha, Apar, Manu, Reema, Sakhi, Xylene and Jayya.

*****

Apar apparently tagged me sometime back with a photo tag; am so grateful to her (for giving me something for my ‘next post’).

I was also tagged to do the quirky tag by Verbivore, but I noticed that at the end of doing his own, Nikhil had killed the tag! I hope it’s come back to life — because I quite like that tag! 😀

Verbivore also tagged me to do the Movie Quirks tag, but after writing the first part of this sentence, I noticed that she hasn’t. So ooops…sorry!

*****

I also got to know that Vimal‘s not single anymore 😀 (Vimal, I tried; but the cat scratched me and jumped out of the bag) 😀

*****

I noticed that the Avante Garde Awards haven’t been announced yet. I’m extremely thankful to everyone who nominated me — I’m honoured to have made into the list! May the best blogger win!

*****

Soon after posting this, I intent to visit every blog that’s on my roll and leave a “hi” — just so that everyone knows I’m back 😀 (To comment would mean reading the posts — which’ll let me tell others that I’m back only when I’m 78!!

*****

Last but of course, not the least, I’m pleased to announce the appointment of Nikhil as my Santa Claus for Year 2008! 😀 Anyone else who wishes to be the same are welcome to do so — I’d only be extra glad! 😉

*****

Folks, am dying for news as to what’s been happening in the blogville while I took that untimely break. So, tell me…what’s been happening!?

Revolutions are not for dumb people!

Hey all!

My apologies to each reader of my blog, to the wonderful bloggers in my bloglist, and to those bloggers in whose list I’m honoured to be a part of. My apologies to all of you for neglecting the blog world for some time now. I have not been updating my blog regularly (that too, when the Avant Garde Blogie Awards nominations are happening, damn!), I have not been responding to your comments, and I have not been visiting any blogs either. I’ve been a bad, bad, really bad blogger 😦

In my favour, I’d like to say that I have been caught up in a couple of weird things that’s been keeping me busy these days. A computer that logs me out automatically — and shuts down too — when it feels like (leaving me with a really dumb expression each time); a Mom who keeps calling me downstairs every 4th minute; a Dad who remembers he’s got “urgent work to be completed” only when I choose to use the system; a brother who…ummm…naah…can’t really find anything against him 😀 ; and a perpetual boredom in life that keeps giving me strange and foreboding signals of my future!

So, that done, let me tell you what happened when I decided to join the most happening Revolution in the blog world!

Today evening, when I woke up after a short nap, I slowly looked around around me. The signs were good. Mom was happily gossipping with her brother and sister-in-law. Dad was chatting up with an old friend (sign that he would not think of ‘work’ for a while). My computer was not acting strange at all!

Time to blog, I realised! I sat down in front of the system and logged into Gmail, Orkut and WP. I waited for 5 minutes. It didn’t log me off! Was I happy! And then, Nikhil called. We discussed “rude bloggers” for a while and he asked me if I’d joined the Commenting is a privilege, not a right! revolution.
I felt really ancient! I didn’t even know about it! 😦

Well, though I’d already been in despair about being a bad-blogger lately, he made me furthermore guilty, saying his blog, and many others, had been neglected! “I’m hurt”, he said. 😀
I felt sheepish. I’m sure I sounded so too 😐

I said, “Look, I’d been really busy…I’m sorry…I haven’t been checking any of the blogs lately…” etc etc. He kept saying “I’m hurt! I’m more hurt!” 😛 Well, to change the topic, I latched on to the Revolution badge — and I asked him to help me put it up.
It was then that I felt like an ancient sheepish dumbo! 😀

He explained things over phone to me. “Open a new text widget. Add the code. Save changes…” etc etc. I was awed, wondering how people know such stuff. “It’s basic HTML”, he said. Ahem! that put me in the not-so-knowledgeable-about-basic-stuff category! In spite of having fed the widget with the code, the badge refused to come to life. When he started explaining it all over again, I, like a genius, blurted out that I’d added the code to a widget that was already there.

“What?? You needed to add a little more code, then! I asked you to create a new text widget. You should’ve told me you were adding it in the same old one! I asked you whether you opened a new widget and you said yes! Brilliant! Great! Oh. My. God!”

😯 I’ve never heard him sound so mad! Of course, he refused to agree that he was mad at me. Politely, instead of saying “How dumb can you be?”, he said “I’m amused”.

Patiently, he explained it all over again — the angel! 😀 😉
(While he patiently explained it again, I was kinda ROFL silently! Well, apparently, I was not as silent about it as I should have been 😦 !)

P.S.: But well, the badge is up! I’ve joined the War-Against-Trolls! 😀
And sorry for such a senseless post, people. I’m still in the daze of ‘being screamed at’! 😀