Tuesday, August 7, 2012

And now the Liebster


Anupam Patra is another of my dear friends from Blogosphere who has found me worthy of an award – the Liebster award. Since this one is to be awarded to a blogger with less than 200 followers, among other qualifications like doing a good job of blogging, I found that I satisfied at least one criterion – having only 35 followers. When I mentioned this on Anupam’s post, he calls me ‘humble and detached’!
Humble? Someone is reputed to have said “That man has much to be humble about!” about a man with a reputation for humility. That description suits me like it was made-to-order. As for my detachment, Anupam would have had to revise his opinion in a hurry if he had seen me doing cartwheels and go singing all over the house after reading his mail conferring the award on me.

RULES

If you are tagged/nominated, you have to post 11 facts about yourself.
Then you answer the 11 questions the tagger has given you & make 11 questions for the people you are going to tag.
Tag 11 more Bloggers.
Tell the people you tagged that you did.
No tagging back.

This one has one more layer of complexity. I have also to post eleven facts about myself. Mmm! Leading a totally uninteresting life makes it difficult for one to talk of himself and expect to hold the reader’s attention. But then, when have I ever held it that I should worry about doing it now? So, here goes.

1.      Brought up in Neyveli as a kid.
2.      Chemical Engineer and IIM-B post-graduate (Gotta say that, Dude, else even I’ll forget)
3.      Worked in Delhi for IFFCO in the area of fertilizer subsidies.
4.      Bachelor.
5.      Retired early because of congenital inability to stand working.
6.      Trekker – desultorily these days.
7.      Love Indian movie music (old) and carnatic music (can’t say the same of those who listen to me ‘singing’ )
8.      Hate shopping
9.      Love books – fantasy and science fiction mainly, these days
10.  Like solitude
11.  Like writing – as if you did not know J
Always knew that writing CVs would come in handy one day! Giving me a job anyone? One with lots of pay and no work!


On to Anupam’s questions.

1] 'Checkered blue n white' or 'black'?

Whatever my sis gets for me (Note I hate shopping!)

2] Curtains or no curtains?

Blinds – well that is what my sis chose

3] Hardcover, paperback or ebooks?

Paperback

4] What's your ambiance while writing?

Music

5] Do you plan to publish a novel?

I dream of it, all right! Get me an interested Publisher and I shall plan on it as well.

6] Do you like to make a gift for your loved one or do you rather buy?

If loved one means ‘significant other’, I do not have one to gift to. If it is just someone I love, then I’d rather have my sis buy the present. If I make it or buy it myself, I am certain to have one lesser person to love after that.

7] Which is the most beautiful color according to you?

Sky blue

8] What’s your mantra in life?

There is always something to enjoy in life – no matter the circumstances.

9] Have you ever thought of becoming a soldier in your life?

Never! I hear that they get up at unearthly hours and they have to be disciplined. My worst nightmares, both of them!

10] Do you have stage fear?

I am never afraid of the stage as long as I do not have to get up on it. When I do, it is more like stage panic.

11] ‘Mickey mouse/ Aladin/Duck Tales’ or ‘ Shin Chan/ Doraemon/ Kitretsu’?

What about Tom and Jerry?


Now for the unfortunates, who are expected to tell 11 facts about themselves, nominate 11 bloggers, inform them of the peril to come and ask them 11 questions – all because they had the misfortune to impress me and did not get 200 followers so that they could escape the ordeal.

Here come the eleven questions. Since I have taken great care to select 11 people who are not in the list of those I tagged, I might as well ask them the same questions.

1. What do you think is your best post?
2. Which of your posts do you think was most under-appreciated?
3. What genre are you unable to attempt and wish to?
4. What is the one unachieved dream that you look forward to achieving?
5. What is the aspiration that you think you can never achieve?
6. What is most important to you - Values, Relationships or Money & Fame?
7. Which do you prefer - a peaceful life or a life of passion and turbulence?
8. Which place in India do you most desire to visit?
9. Which place in the World do you most desire to visit?
10. What is it that you like the most about India?
11. What is it that you dislike the most about India?

I take specific pleasure in bouncing this back to Jayashree - who tagged me - since she cannot bounce it back to me again given the rule that she cannot tag back :) I can't be said to have tagged her back - she did not give me the Liebster :) :)

Have fun!

27 comments:

  1. Congratulations Suresh ji. You deserve every bit of it and tons more despite whatever you may say.

    ReplyDelete
  2. i am sure, you are aware of the fact that you are getting more awards than anyone else :D, and we enjoy reading your award and tag posts as you have this uncanny knack of creating humor posts out of nothing. keep getting these awards and keep writing these award posts. congratulations!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Not really Debajyothi! I am only eagerly rushing into print with them :) Others are blase about it :)

      I'd love to see you write an award post - probably put mine completely in the shade w.r.t0 humor!

      Delete
  3. Congrats Suresh:)
    ...and hey!(from the facts about you)we have so many things in common:)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We had to have a lot in common, Amit! We seem to vibe so well over blogs :)

      Delete
  4. You deserve it, no doubt...!
    Congratulations :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi Suresh

    Hearty Congrats. Your posts lighten up our days and you rock!

    "If I make it or buy it myself, I am certain to have one lesser person to love after that." LOL!!

    Thanks for passing it on to me, I am honoured. And yes, I cannot pass it back!
    :( If I get another chance I will, ha ha ha(Can you hear my villainous laugh?) :D

    God! Cant they have a lesser no? 11 from amongst all the lovely bloggers out there! Phew!

    Keep entertaining us Suresh. I have read your philosophical posts and I think besides all that humor there is a person out there with some deep insights about life in general. Kudos!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ahem! This wondrous person - Love to meet him :) Haven't seen him in the mirror yet :)

      Delete
  6. Congratulations to the most deserving person..:)

    ReplyDelete
  7. I know that this question was not asked, but I am curious to know. As a writer, will you publish (and I know that you will one day) short stories or a full length novel?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'd love to publish a full length novel, Sudha! Not that I am necessarily averse to publishing short stories if someone will have them :)

      I had not thought of publishing short stories at all since I did not even know i could plot them till recently. Always had plots for novels running in my mind.

      It is a morale-booster to hear that you think I will publish one day! I do not know about it since I have no idea of how to go about getting it done given my abysmal ignorance of the publishing scene and my bashfulness when it comes to marketing myself.

      Delete
  8. Will you publish a photo of yours dancing around when you got Anupam's mail?It will crown all the interesting tit-bits you have told us!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ah Indu! Is it not enough that I make a fool of myself with words that you want a video of it as well? :):)

      Delete
  9. First of all, Suresh, many many congratulations on the award. You are a wonderful writer and it is a pleasure to my senses every time I read your writing. So keep writing as always.

    I really liked reading those 11 facts about you and your responses to those 11 questions. You had your trademark humor going for you and the responses were sweet and straight from the heart as well.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Congratulations for the award. You are a wonderful person, and I firmly believe that good things come to those who are good, so the spate of awards lining up for your blog is no surprise.

    Thank you for nominating me. I'm relatively insulated from the entire blogosphere that you veterans navigate so well, so it means a lot to me when someone gives me their time. I have no idea how you guys manage to be everywhere all the time, and deliver such a humongous output of consistent prose, the best I can do is a post every fortnight, so I feel honoured that you take the time to read my blog.

    Real Life sometimes gets ahead of me and I've to chase it back down, so at times , blogging takes a back seat. I apologize for not responding here sooner to thank you.

    Considering how a post I began to write for Rakshabandhan is still not done, reduced as I am to writing one line per day, I hope you will excuse me that my own post for Liebster is not published yet. But it should be done soon, alongwith the answers to your questions, there is just the small matter of finding those 11 bloggers who will make my list :P

    Thank you once more, and I look forward to many more fruitful interactions in the future. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Sandy! Whatever is lacking in me, I do seem to have the luck of impressing people as being a 'wonderful person' and that more than makes up for all the rest :)

      Btw, I am no veteran being not much more than active for 5 months in blogosphere. And the honor and pleasure is all mine when it comes to reading your blog.

      Delete
    2. http://sandyspeak.blogspot.in/2012/08/Liebsteraward.html :)

      Delete
  11. Almost a month late, but I finally got down to passing on the torch! Here are my responses to your questions! Hope I did them justice!

    http://reekycoleslaw.com/?p=533

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Great Rickie that you took the time! Just back so shall check out your blog tomorrow after I get over the tiresome bus journey!

      Delete