It has been a long while since I picked up a tag. The usual tags ask you to reveal random things about you or to do some task and then pass it on to a stipulated number of bloggers, to make it a chain of sorts. I had done that here . But when R’s Mom tagged me and gave me the Versatile Blogger award to go with it, I took it up. For one, it was different as all it required was for me to pick up posts in stipulated categories from my archives and give their links, before passing the tag on to five more bloggers.
There are many which I had written before Cybernag became popular which are pretty decent if you ask me. Also I thought it was the least I could do for my blog in return for giving me so many friends, both personal and virtual — a perfect anniversary gift in fact.
To tell you the truth, when I had started blogging two years ago, I never thought I would be able to keep it going for this long. I remember saying the same thing last year too, but over 140 posts later, it comes as a surprise to me that I have not only been writing regularly but also getting readers and their comments. I tell you folks, no nagging could have been this rewarding!
Coming back to my ‘tagger’, R’s Mom is a bubbly young mother who chronicles her daily adventures as she balances a job, a three-year-old child and a home — not necessarily in that order. What is more, she posts on her blog daily! She is one blogger who actually treats her blog as the weblog it was meant to be. Her chronicles, observations, rants and raves all are straight from the heart and so endearing.
Ah, the tag now: There are various categories under which I have to select and give links to posts on my blog.
They are:
The post I loved the most:
I will start with this category. I didn’t have to ponder over this one at all. It had to be Of Milestones. The choice is obvious since it is about the family, not just one member but all of us. It was about the wonderful time we spent together, with little Diya providing the icing on the cake. It was also my 100th post, not by design but by coincidence.
The posts which didn’t get the attention they deserved:
1. One post that didn’t get noticed was the The Invisible Workforce, probably because it was one of my early posts. This one was about domestic child workers, whose plight has always made me see red. They are all around us, lugging their little masters’ school bag, the memsahib’s shopping bags, working for 16 hours or more and sleeping on the bare floor, often beaten and even molested. Child workers in the organized sector by comparison get more attention because of their visibility.
2. I am taking the liberty of adding another one here, A Utopian Scenario, which unfortunately didn’t get much attention either. Media and politicians are always playing up communal tension and adding fuel to the fire. So when just after the Babri verdict I saw this news item – of a Brahmin priest who was heading the Imam Council of UP and fighting for an increase in their wages, I thought that it deserved to be highlighted. For it is only when we fight negativity with positivity that there can be some change.
My most popular post:
I have noticed that anything to do with food, kids and controversies turn out to be very popular. I do write about kids but avoid controversial ones if I can help it. Idli Dosas anyone? was my only ‘food’ post. And sure enough it got a great many hits and quite a few comments too going by the number of comments I got in the first year. There were others that got more comments and views than this one, but I picked it up because, well, it is my choice, right?
My most helpful post:
If you ask me, all the posts under L&M and the Brats series are of the ‘helpful’ kind. But if you insist, I would pick out two of them: Tricky Teen talk, since it tells you how to handle teens! It is a handbook of teen lingo, no less.
The other one would be Why (not) to be a perfect mother? as this one gives you not one but several reasons to be an imperfect mother. I am sure all mothers would welcome it as the most helpful one! After all, where would you get advise on being imperfect, eh? Go ahead and get educated!
The post whose success surprised me
The Yin and Yang of my blog is one of my latest posts, written in response to many of my blogger friends who wanted to know my real name. I just wanted to clarify that Zephyr was my real name, and why it was. The comments were wonderful but the curiosity only increased!
The post I am most proud of:
One is never completely satisfied with what one writes, but sometimes one has reasons to feel good about a piece of writing. A Handful of Sand was one such. Relationships are delicate and need to be handled with a lot of care – like trying to disentangle a silken cloth from a bush of thorns. And writing about them is also full of pitfalls as it is easy to become biased and try to impose one’s views on the readers. Going by that yardstick, I thought I had handled this post well.
My most controversial post:
I won’t call Is a degree holder really educated? exactly a controversial post, except maybe for the title, but it certainly aroused a lot of passion and debate. Education is close to everyone’s heart and everyone holds their own views and opinions about it. So this post saw some lively comments, some very enlightening and some rather indignant at the study I had quoted from the papers which showed up Indians in a poor light. My blogger buddy Laughing Gas came up with some great observations and explanations in response to the comments. And folks, the replies were anything but funny.
Hope you enjoy reading them if you haven’t already, and comments would be welcome too. Thanks for staying with me for two years and hope you will let me nag you more in the coming year(s)!
The Tag:
This tag is about uniting bloggers (from all sectors) in a joint endeavor to share lessons learned and create a bank of long but not forgotten blog posts that deserve to see the light of day again. All you have to do is this:
Blogger publishes his/her 7 links on his/her blog – 1 link for each category in the categories mentioned above and nominates five bloggers to pick up the tag. Simple!
And I am tagging anyone who would like to pick this one up. It is fun, since you read your own old posts and get to edit them in the bargain!
Image Credit: rogerblazic.com
The Cybernag 
There is a surprise for you.
Please do visit :
http://pagesofflife.blogspot.in/2012/02/my-very-own-versatile-blogger-award.html
-Rupertt Wind
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What an interesting tag! Like a brief summary of an entire blog 🙂 I also end up editing them, if I go through my older posts!! 🙂
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Editing is an ongoing thing. One can never be satisfied with what one writes, isn’t it?
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Yes, it really is an ongoing thing!!
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Hi,
First time here, I don’t remember how I found your blog. But I am happy I did. I have not read your posts yet, I am anticipating an interesting read,going by the topics , and the intro in each.
Thanks.
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Hi Pattu, welcome here. It does not matter how you reached here, but that you did 🙂 Hope you like reading the posts and leave your comments on them. I found yours a very interesting blog too. I will be coming again to leave my comments there 🙂 Visit again!
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Great to have a compilation of your greatest post. I have lately enjoyed you writing, but this is a good opportunity to look back into bygone posts. Congratulation with keeping up the spirit for two years. I hope you plan to keep it going.
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With words of encouragement such as yours, I will surely find the motivation to keep it going 🙂 Hope you enjoy reading them.
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I am perennially in the middle of several books while an ever growing pile of untouched books awaits me. And I am not even mentioning the photography books which keep falling from the crevices of the cupboards and wardrobes. And to make matters worse, I have this itch of repeatedly reading a bunch of ebooks and the L&M (and the Brats) series here. No wonder I wear a permanently dazed look!
Your posts are all a treat but it was nice to learn how you feel about them. I believe I cannot do justice to them in short, snatched moments. I will read them (again) at leisure.
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That was a wonderful compliment USP. My posts competing with books? Wow! Keep visiting and of course, commenting 🙂
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I am perennially in the middle of several books while an ever growing pile of untouched books awaits me. And I am not even mentioning the photography books which keep falling from the crevices of the cupboards and wardrobes. And to make matters worse, I have this itch of repeatedly reading a bunch of ebooks and the L&M (and the Brats) series here. No wonder I wear a permanently dazed look!
Your posts are all a treat but it was nice to learn how you feel about them. I believe I cannot do justice to them in short, snatched moments. I will read them (again) at leisure.
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yayayayay! you did the tag *does a little jig* I have read all the L&M and brats’ posts…the rest, I think I have missed out the earlier ones…need to do that…thanks thanks and more thanks for taking this up okie 🙂
hugs
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It was entirely my pleasure RM 🙂 Got to read and correct the typos in some of the old ones 😉 And hugs right back.
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I am perennially in the middle of several books while an ever growing pile of untouched volumes awaits me. And I am not even mentioning the photography books which keep falling from the crevices of the cupboards and wardrobes. And to make matters worse, I have the repertoire of ebooks and series like L&M (and the Brats). No wonder I wear a permanently dazed look!
Your posts are all a treat but it was nice to learn how you feel about them. I believe I cannot do justice to them in short snatched moments. I will read them at leisure.
And yes, Happy Anniversary!
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I thought I had dug up and read many of your posts but this tagged showed me a few more. You write beautifully Zee…
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There are so many and some are really buried in the recesses. Enjoy 😀
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Thanks for this compilation! I have to do some catching up on your earlier posts! I have enjoyed every post of yours for their lucid style of writing and content bearing the stamp of Zephyr:)
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Thanks for the appreciation of my writing style. Keep coming and leaving your comments! 🙂
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i have started reading your posts recently so will take time to read each one but kudos on writing continuously for 2 years. i just completed a year
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Congrats Madhav on completing a year of blogging. I will look forward to your visits and comments 🙂
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Happy Bloganniversary to my favourite Blogger! Even as the stack of unread books rises by the day, I am at different points in the following books:
(i) Sea of Poppies (Amitav Ghosh)
(ii) A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
(iii) The Immortals (Amit Chaudhary)
Not to mention the heap of photography books. Looks like they’ll have to wait some more till I reread the L&M (and the Brats) series!
Here is wishing many, many more Happy Returns of the Day!
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Wow! My L&M series comes above all those unread tomes? Thanks a lot for the motivation and support USP 🙂
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Wish you a very many happy returns of the day. I wish you a life of eternity to entertain all of us with your fabulous postings. Only, I find the arrears are mounting and I am unable to cope up with it. Hope to view all your articles one by one , at least at the rate of one or two per day. Wish you all the best once again.
G.N. Blakrishnan
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Wish you a very many happy returns of the day. I wish you a life of eternity to entertain all of us with your fabulous postings. Only, I find the arrears are mounting and I am unable to cope up with it. Hope to view all your articles one by one , at least at the rate of one or two per day. Wish you all the best once again.
G.N. Balakrishnan
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Thank you for the good wishes, sir. I am not writing so prolifically these days and I am sure you will be able to catch up with the backlog. Do take your time and hope you enjoy them. I would request you to read the ones posted under the categories of Society and Nostalgia and share your views on them.
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Eversince I started reading your blog, I can say, I have read all your posts. May be haven’t posted comments in some but I like your style and topics. Keep writing without bothering about Best & worst!
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That’s wonderful SRA. I do value your comments that I see on some of the posts. Thank you for the encouragement. 🙂
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Nice. I am very new to your blog, so this tag is perfect I can go and read other old posts too which I have missed out on. So thankyou for all the links. Congrats on the versatile award.
I must say for what I have read I M glad I visited you.
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Thank you Bikram, I am glad you like the posts. Do come back to read more 🙂
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Not a comment on the blog…. But please get your webdesigner aka the younger one to create a mobile version too… Some comments are not properly readable on mobile -I’ve read n commented on your previous posts by phone only.
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Done, right away. he must be heartily sick of me nagging him to do this and that. but if it helps my nagging, so be it. 🙂
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Happy blogaversary, Zephyr, and may you nag your readers for many more years to come 🙂 I loved your idea of revisiting your posts for picking up a tag. I will do it when it time for my blogaversary !
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That should be a great idea. When is your blogaversary by the way? Beware of encouraging me to nag. I wait for the slightest excuse to unleash something on an unsuspecting netizens. 😀
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I’ve discovered you only recently, so this post couldn’t have come at a better time for me. The posts you linked made for some delightful reading. Thank you for this post 🙂
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Please feel free to browse by category instead of just going by my choices. I am glad you enjoyed reading them, Scribblehappy 🙂 Come again!
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Most of your posts, I’ve read, but somehow I missed reading ‘Why (not) to be a perfect mother’. Hilarious, but, oh so real! Not many kids would want a perfect mother, I’m sure!
Enjoyed re-reading a couple of the others, too. 🙂
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That’s what I liked about this particular tag. You pick out posts from your archives. Did you visit R’s Mom’s blog? She is one lively blogger. You will love her energy 🙂
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I had missed reading two of your posts 😀
now I have the URLs for it 😉
I will pick up tag soon..
catch you offline
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Good, now you don’t have an excuse not to read them 😉 catch me when? you are so busy 😦
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I was very recently introduced to your blog by my son-in-law, Srini, who is himself a blogger, What Ho Laughing Gas. I could read only a couple of your articles and I find them to be delightfully entertaining and nice. I wish I have the time to go thru all your articles, but with multifarious other activities and my age factor, I have to defer my urge to peruse all your articles in a more leisurely manner, as I can then enjoy the reading. To catch up with the back-log will require lot of time. So I have made it a point to read your current ones and postpone reading the earlier blogs to a leisurely phase. Wish you all the best. Regards. G.N. Balakrishnan
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Please read the posts at your own convenience sir. I feel honoured to have you read them at all 🙂 I am happy that you like the posts and enjoy reading them. What Ho is my favourite writer too. Do visit again. 🙂
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Dear Zephyr, Congrats on the anniversary! Here’s wishing you many more such dates to come. Yours is one of the six blogs/sites I read without fail every week. Thanks for such engaging content on a wide variety of topics! cheers.
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Coming from you, I take it as a special compliment LG and I feel honoured. I am a great fan of the chicken soup you dish out every week, though I am a strict vegetarian 😀
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I see I have a lot of reading to do, Zephyr! You already know I admire your writing. I am keen to check out all the posts you’ve referred to. Elsewhere in the blogosphere I think this link up is called the “7 links challenge” – I remember reading a couple of blogs that had “accepted” the challenge.
Very nice, indeed! Happy anniversary!
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That is a sweet compliment Vidya,thank you 🙂 The 7 random things is another tag, which I had done long back and now just provide the link to, when tagged by someone.
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I have read all of them 🙂 (Just shows how ‘jobless I am 😉 )
Inever do tags that has remained the policy with me. the reason I have never tried to ascertain.
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Oh Bhagya, you read them because you are jobless? And I thought that you loved reading my posts 😉 Tags were a rage a couple of years ago, but they have started making the rounds again, I guess.
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‘I loooooove south Indian food,’..Do you get the hint?
I honestly do. Having lived in Blore for 5 years I can depreciate the fine nuances between, Andhra, Kerala, Tamil, Mangalorean and Telugu food.
I had missed this post, good you tagged them.
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Of course I do Alka! Say when. It would be nice to cook for a discerning eater and I can go to town cooking up real food instead of just idli dosas. 🙂
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I had been lurking quite a long in ur place..Finally gathered the guts to comment and start a space of my own and putting forth my views…This post is a beautiful walk back into ur old posts which i would always like to read reread and laugh! Thank you…
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It is nice to see you here Sunshine! And am I glad the Cybernag encouraged you to start a blog, albeit indirectly. I am glad you liked the posts. Welcome again 🙂
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Cybernag has replied me!!!! 🙂 🙂
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and mailed you too! 😀
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A very different and meaningful tag from the ones that usually do the rounds. Wont be able to take it up though as mine is a tag free blog. Had fun reading the earlier tag post that you have linked in here. Got to know something more of you 🙂
Absolutely loved your collection of posts here. Will go through some that are new to me but thats only after I re-read the one that I love the most 🙂
Hope you get many more tags and awards in the coming years and many thanks for making me a part of this wonderful nag family 🙂
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That was the random thingie post. I didn’t want to reveal something fresh so cheated and repeated the same ones. 😉 And which are the ones which you love the most? Like Purba is partial to the L&M posts and the ones about Diya. Of course you are part of the nag family. Who wouldn’t want such a charming young travel blogger who writes fit for all age groups especially those oldies who want to go on a yatra, me included? 🙂
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Oh goody!!..now i can streamline and get on to reading the ones u’ve mentioned above:-)..though i have read a few of them mentioned..will get on to reading the others..its amazing how u write so simply and yet hit a home run!..keep on writing..cheers!
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*Blush* I am glad you like the posts. Looking forward to comments on the ones you read 🙂
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I love all your posts. They are thoughtful, mature, witty,well researched, perfectly formatted and you can never spot a typo. Of course I am partial towards your L& M and brats series – they never fail to amuse yet they are poignant.
I will be completing two years in a weeks time….feels surreal. And what a coincidence, that we both started around the same time 🙂
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Thank you Purba! You made my day and in fact so many days that I am charged up to nag for another year at least 😀 Yes, I remember that you started in Feb ’10 too but look at where A-Musing has reached in the same span of time! Way to go and more spice to your fingers 🙂
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I like this tag! Got to read a lot of your older posts.. Your fav post is my fav post as well 🙂
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Thank you Jenny. Looking forward to more comments on the other ones too 😀
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I have begun reading you recently… So, off to reading all those posts you mentioned here.
I simply luuuurrrrved the ‘Tricky Teen Talk’, remembered my teenage and would certainly have it safely bookmarked to use as ‘Ready Reckoner’ 10 year down the line 😀
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Be warned Seema, teens can’t be handled with any reckoner, ready or otherwise. They come up with the most outlandish of things and confound us at every step. 🙂 Psst…I remembered my own teenage when I wrote it too. Genes, you see! 😀
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true, this is a slightly unique tag & helps us revisit some of our old thoughts. when i was tagged similarly,i found it difficult to pick & fit in the relevant posts into some of the categories esp ones like “post i am most proud of’ or ‘which i love the most’ or the hardest one ‘the post which didn’t get the attention it deserved’ HOW do you crack the last one?
did u take time on these – selecting which posts go where?
you’ve managed really well slotting some very interesting posts into their slots
the easy ones are ‘popular posts’ and ‘controversial post’ hahah
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I couldn’t fit some too, since mine is not an inspirational or how-to kind of blog. That’s why I have cheated and put the L&M posts under ‘helpful’ posts, see? I can understand how hard it is to choose from your posts some categories. But the one I loved most was naturally the one about my granddaughter and the family. The one which didn’t get the attention it deserved would surely be ones which you thought passionately about and wrote your heart out, but didn’t find many readers. The one on religious harmony and child workers were such. 🙂 You have a pretty good collection to pick and choose from too. Do give me the link to the tag which you had done. I would love to read them. 🙂
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I have to read the earlier posts of yours. The later ones, I’ve read and vociferously and verbosely commented upon :). My personal favorites are your relationship posts, as you already know. Will show go through the others when I have a little time on hand. These days, I am struggling for time. Keep writing!
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I wait for your comments, Rachna. They contribute to the discussion. And yes, I know you like the relationship posts and now I have pulled out some from other categories and added them to this one because they actually were relationship ones. The L&M ones are too, though they take a look tongue in cheek 😀
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Thank you for your warm words. I like your L&M series a lot. One day, I was reading them one after another and chuckling. What I like best about these posts is that though you take a dig, you do it in a nice way without becoming obnoxious. I love cheeky posts and especially those with humor. Do you read R.Ramesh’s blog? His posts always have a joke or two and are always a good read with loads of digs ;).
And, no matter how busy I am, the moment you post, I am on it :). That just shows how spectacular your blog is and how engaging its content. Wish you loads of great writing! It should be fun taking on this tag sometime.
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You’d not take an obnoxious dig when you realise that you are in the same boat and god knows what the L&M and Brats have to say about YOU! That makes me ‘charitable’ 😀 Thanks for the love and attachment to my blog and writing. I really appreciate it. 🙂
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Shall surely go through your links.
Wont pick up the tag as my blog does not accept any chain mail type award/tag.
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That’s why I have kept the tag optional! I thought Is should indulge in some real ‘blog’ activity today which is why the tagging 😀
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Lovely post. You have provided a wonderful collection of your posts. Some of which I have read before and some I havent (yet). I intend to read all of those wonderful posts as well. And as always it is a pleasure to read your posts. Keep writing more and more. 🙂
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Thank you Raj. It is always great to find someone who is a willing to get nagged 😀
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I will read the posts you have mentioned here. And when I came here, I remembered that two people have given me this award. There was a time – a phase in blogging when I took up all the tags, awards etc. My blog used to have a three column template, one column only for awards. I don’t remember not getting any award back then. Soon enough the phase passed, awards and tags lost its charm. Call it my sheer laziness or maybe by then I had revealed every possible thing about me which I could online. Only my contact number and address was secret; but again, indiblogger people had an access to that too 😀
now I write when I am in the mood, read a lot but comment where I can add anything to the post or share some experience. Otherwise, I have become more of a reader and a pathetic commenter. While reading this post, I was thinking about which post I would mention in those categories. Well, I think I will take up the tag when I face writer’s block. 🙂
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Good idea, to take up the tag when you are stuck for ideas. But it actually gives you so many ideas when you go through your archives. What I liked about this one was that it didn’t ask for any ‘revelations’. I did only the one tag of that sort that I have linked here, and give that link to anyone who tags me now! but I too have been awarded many times. I need to put up a page of those in deference to those who thought me worthy of them 🙂
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