Tagged

I have been tagged! For what, I have not been told by Jayashree Srivatsan, who tagged me but she is a kindly soul – at least to me – and I suppose it must be for something good.  I have always enjoyed her writing and she has been kind enough to praise my posts (and, more importantly, refrained from negative criticism, which must have been warranted often enough).

Kindly soul, did I say? Maybe not entirely, considering that she has saddled me with the job of (a) Answering her questions – relatively easy (b) tagging 11 bloggers – very difficult as I found out since most of the bloggers I know have already been tagged or are averse to tagging and (c) Asking them 11 questions – the most difficult. I never was a good interviewer!

But first the rules:

1.                  Link back the blogger who tagged you.

2.                  You must post the rules.

3.                  Answer the questions given by the person tagged you.

4.                  Tag eleven new bloggers.

5.                  Set eleven new questions for the bloggers tagged by you.

6.                  Inform them about the tag

Now to Jayashree’s questions

1) Is there any specific time of the day that you set aside for blogging?

Not at all! Since I wake up as I please and sleep when the mood takes me, it is impossible for me to fix up any specific time for blogging. Besides, if I did set any such time, blogging would seem too much like work and I hate working!

2) Do you live to eat or eat to live? :)

Ah! I live to eat when someone else is doing the cooking. Since most of the time I cook for myself, it is too much work to cook a spread in order to ‘live to eat’. So, when I cook, I ‘eat to live’!

3) Name some movies you would never mind watching again and again

I am more of a book person. Movies…Hmmmm! Maybe that series of movies that K.Balachander directed with Nagesh as the central hero; ‘Kadhalikka Neramillai’ by Sridhar; some Amol Palekar movies.

4) Which is the best place you have been to on vacation?

There was this trek in the Zanskar Valley in Ladakh. The views there were out of the world!

5) If you are given an option of eradicating any one social evil in India which one would you pick and why?

Maybe the ‘Someone should do something about it” attitude? If once we take the responsibility of doing something about whatever our pet social evil is, it would help eradicate/mitigate all of them.

6) Name one bad habit you have been trying to change

I love all my bad habits too much!

7) What’s your favorite cuisine and food items?

South Indian! I love the humble idli (how stereotypical J )

I have tried to open my taste buds to other cuisine but have hitherto lost the battle either to my tongue or my stomach – one or the other of which chooses to rebel.

8) Share something which a small kid said to you, the memory of which always brings a smile to your face

In a North Indian wedding, one kid tells her mother, “Uncle ka chehra ulta hai” – alluding to the hair on my chin and the lack of it on my head, I suppose

9) What was the scariest experience you had in life so far?

Other than this one? Well! I was bicycling to college and a huge truck was overtaking me. This was one of those roads where the road ended half a foot higher than the adjacent ground, so I was carefully riding on the three-inch wide strip left for my use by the truck. There is this guy in the tea shop who rushes out in front of me with a purpose to make me fall, as it appeared (What else could he do with the truck blocking his path across the road?) I hit him, the cycle slid off the road and I fell, hit my shoulder on the side of the truck and then fell down. The massive rear wheels of the truck passed half-an-inch in front of my eyes. Had luck not favored me, my brains would have been a thin paste spread on the road to Chidambaram.

10) When you are extremely confused about some decision what do you do?

Confusion about a decision can happen either because (a) you lack the facts or (b) you have to choose between two (or more) equally desirable options. The latter has, as yet, not happened to me and, thus, I seek facts when I am unable to make a decision. I have made decisions with incomplete facts, as becomes necessary sometimes, but then I go with my best judgment and stop worrying about it.

11) Which is your most favourite genre in blogging  ?

Humor!

On to the next section of bloggers I'd like to tag. I have tried to avoid tagging people who have already been tagged but I do not think that I have succeeded in any great degree. The process of so avoiding has ensured that quite a few bloggers, whom I consider friends, are not in the list.

Sahana

Umashankar Pandey

Rickie Khosla

Debajyoti Ghosh

Dhiraj Shenoy

Amit Agarwal

Alka Narula

Pramod Lohia

Tom Thomas

Captain Awesome

Nabanita Dhar

Now comes the most difficult part. Questions - Mmm? What do I ask? Maybe a series of questions starting with What do you think is my best post, my second-best post and so on? Shameless self-promotion but then I am shameless!:) Problem is that they may choose not to accept the tag :(

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?

Now, I have established my credentials as a serious thinker - with a capital T - it is all over to you.