250th Edition - "What goes around comes around"

Its official. This is the 250th published article!

When I left for Chennai last weekend for some time with relatives, my mind was in turmoil. I had written 249( including 1 draft) articles by the end of exactly 7 and a half years from the very first post. I wanted to write something special for the 250th, but I was out of unique ideas and only had some travelogue series going on.

On Monday, I was back in Bangalore and was checking my mails in a hurry before leaving for office. One comment on my blog caught my attention. I have been nominated again for a Liebster's award - this time by Divya. How timely!! I finally found a fitting content for the 250th post. But on checking her blog, I found even more reasons to rejoice.

If readers remember, it has hardly been a fortnight since my first nomination for the Liebster award. As part of the nomination process, I had nominated ten other bloggers for the same award. After giving out my nominations, I planned to track all the blogger who would be nominated down the line and observe how the tree would expand. I knew a couple of recipients personally, and a few more through online interaction, but the rest were pure strangers. But, after tracking a few nominees, the interest fizzled out and soon it was all forgotten.

On tracking back from Divya, I found an interesting relation. Here is a pictorial representation of it. And none of these are people I know personally..

"What goes around, comes around". Whoever coined that line must have been insanely brilliant or just plain wise. Yes, it was my first Liebster nomination that eventually led to my second. But the credit purely goes to each one who received a nomination and passed it on those whom they appreciated. A first, second or 100th Liebster doesn't depict anything more than the level of appreciation people have for one's works. And that appreciation is very important to each and every one of us, as Aparna pointed out in her response to my nomination.

that explains the circular arrows

I am glad I could pass on the valuable appreciation to ten talented writers, and to get that chance again makes me every more luckier. I am deeply honoured by the appreciation and support given to me in the blogosphere, especially Indiblogger. Good begets good, they say. It can't be any truer. I hope my nominations had motivated hundreds down the line to write with greater vigour and  contribute to making the blogosphere richer :) Seriously, I am still in awe at the way my 250th article was formed out of nowhere by a serendipitous nomination from unknown persons, remotely linked to my own action of sharing goodness :D

Enough ramblings, here are the answers to the questions raised by Divya.

1)    What is your favourite place and why?
Ans: My room in my house at Kochi. That is the place where I forged my dreams, fought my demons and learnt to take my own steps. I am me in all of my colours there, and only there.

2)    What would be that one wild thing you intend to do in your lifetime?
Ans: Leave the norms of society and become a villian who tries to break it and show people how brittle we really are.

3)    How do you define serenity? Illustrate with examples.
Ans: Serenity is when you mind is devoid of nagging conscious thoughts. Serenity is when you sense the peace within and outside merge into unity. I feel it when I sit by the ocean, when I see the long road ahead and no one beside me, when I lie listening to the raindrops, when I wake up one fine morning after a good sleep and thank God for the wonderful life I have been given.

4)    If you were to ask only one question to an alien, what would that be?
Ans: Can you hear me? :)

5)    Light shades or dark colours? Reasons?
Ans: I prefer light shades when I want to express myself and in dark colours when I tend to keep to myself or don't bother to express explicitly. I guess its because light colours catch attention, whereas dark repel.

6)    What is your dream job?
Ans: But my dream job is to be a dreamer.

7)    Describe your favourite birthday experience.
Ans: My birthday is very rarely celebrated at home and there are a very few experiences. Hence all of them are special. But the favourite would be the night when my ex-roomie came from afar with a cake to celebrate my birthday. I myself had expected no one to even remember, due to busy schedules and distances. I was living alone those days too, and was going through some depressing times. :-)

8)    Given a chance, what will you change about the planet earth?
Ans: I wish there were no fossil fuels and we all learnt to tap resources that would maintain harmony and balance for all.

9)    What do you do when you have absolutely free time?
Ans: I would have tonnes of pending things in my to-do. Crazy things, big plans, ideas, tasks for self-improvement, places to see, people to meet, cook, eat or sleep even. The list is endless..

10) What is it that you don’t like in someone?
Ans: Inability to sympathize and tolerate people with different ideas and beliefs.


And the questions..
1) Do you acknowledge the evil in you? If so, do you find it easy to accept that you can be evil too?
2) What is the book that you read last?
3) What kind of music do you listen to?
4) Would you prefer religion to be formally taught in schools? Give reasons too.
5) Do you ever imagine yourself doing nasty things to random strangers?
6) When was the last time you made someone smile?
7) If the world were to end tomorrow morning, would you wish to hold onto whatever you have or would you be ready to give up everything and surrender?
8) Are you a morning person or an evening person?
9) What is one thing in your TODO list that has remained there for the longest and you are willing to reveal in public?
10) Finally, do you believe the policy of "paying forward"? According to it, you would prefer to give help, support and do things ahead of time without expecting results or anything in return.

Unforunately, I just googled and found out that a blogger cannot nominate others a second time. Alas. I feel bad for the nominee list I had half prepared :'(
Well, the questions are open for the readers. Feel free to answer them :-)

To the nominees I couldn't nominate (which could be any one of you reading this), keep writing all those wonderful things you write and use every chance to shower your appreciation on other writers who motivate and captivate you with words :-)

Adios