10th Photo, First Folder, Tagged by Sujata

Boy on a Slide, Bundi, Rajasthan

I was tagged by Sujata recently. I have to go to the first folder on my computer and then post the 10th picture here and tell you all the story.

I have so many folders all over the computer that it was a little difficult to think which is the first folder. So I decided to go with Picasa and took the 10th picture from what it thought was my first folder.

I clicked this young boy on the slide on the request on his grand dad. The grand dad told me, "it is good to see that you have a hobby."

Let me see who should I tag? I will tag Hobo, Global Madrasi, Babli and Being Bindas.

No More Tag

I tagged Steve a few days back with a long list of books and now I got tagged back. The question in front of me is-

What if you learned that you would soon be no more and you wanted to pass along all the lessons you have learned about life to a young person you care about. What would you say (or write)?

Sounds a little scary isn't it?

Whatever I am writing would be for my nephews (my niece is too little to be bothered). I think sometimes life does not make perfect sense. Heck, at some points it makes no sense at all! It is at times like these, if you could find just one reason to stay positive, that is enough.

And whether I am able to understand it or not due to some inexplicable reason life is beautiful.

That is it folks. My words doesn't sound to be full of wisdom! Please feel free to pick this tag up if you wish.

The Book Tag

Since I ran away from the last tag, I thought I would pick up a tag by Emma that I could not complete and it was months ago. And this time it is about books. The list of the books is long and I have read much less than what I would ideally like to read! But then I am going to do it even if I can tick just ten of the list of 106!

I am supposed to bold the ones that I have read, underline the ones I have read in school, italicise the ones I have started but didn't finish. I am surprised that 'The Lord of the Rings' is not included in the list. It is one of my absolute favorites.

1. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
2. Anna Karenina
3. Crime and Punishment
4. Catch-22
5. One Hundred Years of Solitude- Don't know why but I could never finish this one.
   
6. Wuthering Heights
7. The Silmarillion
   
8. Life of Pi: a novel
9. The Name of the Rose D
10. Don Quixote
    
11. Moby Dick
12. Ulysses
    
13. Madame Bovary
    
14. The Odyssey
15. Pride and Prejudice
16. Jane Eyre
17. The Tale of Two Cities
18. The Brothers Karamazov
19. Guns, Germs and Steel - I am reading this now so I guess this could be bold.
20. War and Peace
    
21. Vanity Fair
22. The Time Traveler's Wife
    
23. The Iliad
24. Emma
25. The Blind Assasin
26. The Kite Runner
27. Mrs. Dalloway
28. Great Expectations
29. American Gods
30. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
31. Atlas Shrugged
32. Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
33. Memoirs of a Geisha
34. Middlesex
35. Quicksilver
36. Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
    
37. The Canterbury Tales
38. The Historian: A Novel
39. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
40. Love in the Time of Cholera
41. Brave New World
42. The Fountainhead
43. Foucault's Pendulum
    
44. Middlemarch
45. Frankenstein
46. The Count of Monte Cristo
47. Dracula
48. A Clockwork Orange
49. Anansi Boys
50. The Once and Future King
51. The Grapes of Wrath
52. The Poisonwood Bible
53. 1984
54. Angels and Demons
55. Inferno
56. The Satanic Verses
57. Sense and Sensibility
58. The Picture of Dorian Gray
59. Mansfield Park
60. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest- Loved this one
    
61. To the Lighthouse
62. Tess of the D'Urbervilles
63. Oliver Twist
64. Gulliver's Travels
    
65. Les Miserables
66. The Correction
67. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
68. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
69. Dune
    
70. The Prince
71. The Sound and the Fury
72. Angela's Ashes: A Memoir
73. The God of Small Things
74. A People's History of the United States: 1492-present
75. Cryptonomicon
76. Neverwhere
77. A Confederacy of Dunces
78. A Short History of Nearly Everything
    
79. Dubliners
80. The Unbearable Lightness of Being
    
81. Beloved
82. Slaughter House- five
    
83. The Scarlett Letter
84. Eats, Shoots and Leaves
85. The Mists of Avalon
86. Oryx and Crake
87. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
88. Cloud Atlas
89. The Confusion
90. Lolita
91. Persuasion
92. Northanger Abbey
93. The Catcher in the Rye
94. On the Road
    
95. The Hunchback of Nortre Dame
96. Freakonomics
    
97. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Enquiry into Values
98. The Aeneid
99. Watership Down
100. Gravity's Rainbow
101. The Hobbit- Another of my absolute favoriyes.
     
102. In Cold Blood: A True Account of a Multiple Murder and its Consequences
103. White Teeth
     
104. Treasure Island
     
105. David Copperfield
     
106. The Three Musketeers

One person that I know and how reads a lot is Steve of Gonomad. I wonder if he will pick up this tag.

Running Scared of the Bare your Soul Tag

Emma tagged me with the 'Bare your Soul' tag questions. Hmm, I am running for cover. Here is why!

1. If your lover betrayed you, what will your reaction be?

6. Which is more blessed - loving someone or being loved by someone?

9. If you would like to act with someone who will it be? Your GF/BF or an actor/actresses?

17. If you fall in love with two people simultaneously, who would you pick?

Hope you would not blame me for running sacred. Give me to yap about travel any day! But any souls out there who feel like doing the Bare your Soul tag, just see Emma's post.

Tagged Again: 8 Travel Things about Me?

I have got a nasty cold, and from the last two days I could not upload a picture to my blog, so I was not writing what I had planned. Today, I am quite down and out and yet I wanted to write something. So when Cuckoo tagged me, I decided to take it up for today’s post.

Rules of this Tag:

1. Name the person who tagged you.
2. 8 things about you.
3. Tag 6 people.

1. Name of the Person who Tagged Me.

I told you the name already but I will tell it to you once again, Cuckoo tagged me and she has a very cute profile picture.

2. 8 Things About me!

Now this is difficult from any angle I look at it. I will probably convert most of the things to travel stuff. But let me try.

1. Recently, at a party a very charming lady (who has worked on cruise ship and seen almost half of the world) asked me about my most memorable trip. I had to think for just for a fraction of a second but my most memorable trip has to be Ladakh in 2005. There are many reasons for it. Of course, Ladakh is magical and oh! so beautiful (I have to go back sometime soon). But I am very fond of the place because I somehow feel it proved to be a turning point in my life, in more ways than one. We as usual tried to trek there, and had to abandon it mid way as I fell ill. Still, it makes no difference to me and I consider it the most special trip I ever had.

2. Seven more to go? I am already struggling. OK, here is another one. We are hard core budget travelers and our trip is never complete till we have stayed in at least one uncomfortable hotel (with mice around, of which I am scared to death. My philosophy is that women marry just to have someone to deal with the mice) or braved a battered bus journey. I crib a lot when it happens (and Sesha bears it all with a huge grin) and swear that I will never put up with it again but somehow I always agree for more of the same the next time around.

Pangong Lake in Ladakh

3. My second most memorable trip has been to Goa where the four of us trekked together. We are a family of five, my husband, my two teenaged naughty nephews and my father, we all live together in a chaotic home. My father has not come with us on any of the treks so 4 is about as perfect we are ever going to have it. We tell our nephews that trekking ‘builds character’ (a straight lift from Calvin and Hobbes) and maybe this June the four of us will trek together again somewhere in Lahul and Spiti. My elder nephew is already in college and stays in a hostel.

4. I don’t really know what others think about me but I think I take sometime before I start talking to people. But to the few people I really talk to, I think they silently pray for me to stop talking. Otherwise, I think people consider me a reserved person, somewhat unapproachable. I am really more comfortable listening to stories that others have to tell. I happily tell my stories on this blog.

5.I brag about one thing and that is my game of table tennis. At my previous workplace I used to thrash all my colleagues (and I mean all, gentlemen included) and my students too (60:40 in my favor with the college number one and two among boys). I will not talk about my present workplace scores (one can never be sure who may land up here accidentally :) But I have been beaten soundly each and every time by a certain gentlemen. Hmm, he told me in the very end that he had represented Sweden for a certain age group!

6. OK, three more to go. I once interviewed with Indian Express for sports journalism (right after my Ph.D.) but when they asked me why I want to do it, I goofed up big time by saying “because I need a break from academics.” Well, of course they were not willing to sponsor my break and I think I enjoy academics immensely though sometimes (just sometimes) I seriously think I had enough of 18 year olds for a lifetime.

7. During my Ph.D. days if someone had to find me out in the evenings, they would check out the basketball or the badminton court! And the first time my husband (then my friend) played TT with me he managed a grand score of 3.

8. But to sum it up, I really enjoy academics and cannot see myself doing anything else.

I tag:

1. Deepak

2. Ajeya

3. Steve

4. Gulnaz

5. Tarun

6. Prashanth

and I will make it 7 too.

7. Ms. N

Tag Time: What Does Blogging Mean to Me!

1. Are you happy/ satisfied with your blog, with its content and look?

Happy yes, I derive happiness from many small things but satisfied no! It takes a lot for me to get satisfied with anything, most of all me and my efforts.

2. Does your family know about your blog?

Yes, they do. My sis and brother-in-law, both blog. And they started much before me. If fact it is because of them and my miserable previous jobs that I started to blog.

My husband, father and nephews are aware of my blog. They do not read it much but are happy for me when I share something and they do read whatever links I fwd to them.

3. Do u feel embarrassed to let your friends know about your blog or you just consider it as a private thing?

Not friends but I am not sure how to react when a few of my students say they know about my blog!

4. Did blogs cause positive changes in your thoughts?

My blog was the main source of inspiration during the lean phase in my professional life. It has brought me many good things, more focus, more pleasure in my travels (if that is possible) and definitely a keener interest in photography.

5. Do you only open the blogs of those who comment on your blog or you love to go and discover more by yourself?

This semester has been pretty tough on me, and I have barely managed to keep in touch with those who have been kind enough to leave comments but whenever I have time, I do love to search on Technorati and Blogger about the topics that interest me and discover new (to me) bloggers.

6. What does visitors counter mean to you? Do you care about putting it in your blog?

I love feedback, comments more than visitor counters, but visitors counter too gives me important feedback.

7. Did you try to imagine your fellow bloggers and give them real pictures?

I am anyway not very imaginative but I have seen photographs of many and a few I have met in person :)

8. Do you think there is a real benefit for blogging?

Do you think all those Fortune 500 companies would be blogging if there was not? But what I like more is that Blogs have given a voice to an ordinary person and to me this is very important.

9. Do you think that bloggers’ society is isolated from real world or interacts with events?

I have seen much more grounded travel writings on blogs than in Outlook Traveller.

10. Does criticism annoy you or do you feel it’s a normal thing?

I think I have grown up enormously on this front. I can take criticism more easily now and I am just a bit more gentle when handing criticism :) But I was not always like this.

11. Do you fear some political blogs and avoid them?

No.

12. Did you get shocked by the arrest of some bloggers?

Information is something that repressive regims have always feared. No, it does not shock me that people get arreste over their blogs in some countries. I am fully convinced about the power of the blogs.

13. Did you think about what will happen to your blog after you die?

I hope someone in my family would put a post on my blog that I would be blogging no more, at least from side of the earth :)

14. What do you like to hear? What’s the song you might like to put a link to in your blog?

Has to be an old Hindi song (maybe a love song :) OK, current favorite 'suhani chadni raaten hume soone nahin deten' But my songs change :)

Another all time favortie is, 'musafir hun yaaro ...' particulalrly this line.

Thousand thanks to Bellur for tagging me. Me, I will leave the tag open for everyone.