Sunshine Blogger Award Nominees!

I am writing this post to thank a fellow blogger, Mr. Shri Krishna Sharma who found me eligible enough to nominate for Sunshine Blogger Award. Mr. Shri Krishna Sharma is a prolific writer and has equal command and right in both Hindi and English languages. The best part of his writing is that sometimes he incorporates a one or two line satire in his articles, keeping the other parts of the post clinging to its core issues. The satires from Mr. Sharma force us to rethink about our stand on several issues that plague our society. He writes flowery poetries as well that touch the soul.

You can find more about him here: http://www.samaysakshi.in 

 

Now the time for rules to accept the award that I need to follow: 

• To thank the persons who nominated you and link the post back to
    him/her.

 
• Display the Sunshine Blogger Award picture on your post.

 
• Answer the 11 questions the nominator gave you.

 
• Nominate 11 bloggers who motivate you.

 
• Provide 11 questions to your nominees.

Here are the replies to the questions posed by my nominator Mr. Shri Krishna Sharma.

Why Do You Blog?

I blog because I want the white space of paper or MS word (for that matter) to talk the language of my thoughts. I blog to let others know about how good, bad or uncomfortable I feel about a given aspect of life. And in the process, I happen to meet some wonderful people who remind me that finding like minded people in the world is not so difficult.

I blog to improve my writing skills; I blog to understand the world with a better perspective; I blog to inspire myself to think better.

What does blogging mean to you?

I guess I have answered it in the first question itself.

What is your favorite blogging topic and why?

My favorite topic entails the understanding of day to day struggles that humanity goes through. The struggles that strive to make the life and the world a better place.

Who is your audience and how do you reach out to them?

My audience is the whole world who knows how to read. I want to reach everyone interested in reading. My google aided blogspot.com and www.indiblogger.in are the best two platforms through which I try to reach my readers.

How do you intend to expand your reach and your reader base?

Writing something meaningful is the first step to attract the minds of the readers, so I try to write something meaningful every time I think of writing something.

Who is your favorite blogger from your genre?

Actually, I read from a variety of topics, so to pinpoint a single one would be quite impossible. It is not that I like one and I don’t like others. Actually several flowers make a bouquet…so I like the bouquet far more than I like a single flower.

Do you intend to be a professional blogger ever?

Actually, I write blogs on the topics that interests me and I don’t think that going professional way would give me this latitude. Though, I have done some professional content writing in the past but for blogging I would like to keep it personal instead of professional.

Do you intend to convert your blogposts into a book?

Can’t say quite clearly about it. Actually, book publishing depends on the requirements of the publishing market. In the past, I have failed miserably in the publishing market (I mean my fiction writing was not found eligible enough to be published and after that I have stopped thinking in that direction) Yes, I have been a failure in the publishing world and I have no qualms in accepting that! I am happy with the blogging platforms’ flexibility to write on any topic that I want to write on and there is no fear of getting rejected either. I can publish my writings at my convenience.

What is the importance of Sun Shine Blogger nomination to you?

Look, writing (or blogging in any genre for that matter) is all about recognition and when you are recognized as a writer (or a blogger of a particular genre) a zillion liters of inspiration get infused in the mind to do better with writing and blogging.

In addition to blogging, what else is your hobby?

Reading daily news- papers online about the happenings of the world is one of my interests. The commentaries on how the present scenario of the world is woven intricately with the past intrigue me.

What is one thing that no one knows about you?

If the one thing that no one knows about me, it must be something qualifying for the respect of secrecy. So, let it be that way.

Here is my list of nominees in alphabetical order:

1)      Anita  ( www.anitaexplorer.com) 

2)      Binita Bora ( https://educatedunemployedindian.com)

3)      Bhawana (https://code2cook.com)

4)      Dipali Bhasin (https://www.spoonsandsneakers.com)

5)      Dr. Amrita Basu (https://healthwealthbridge.com)

6)      Jitendra Mathur (https://jmathur.wordpress.com)

7)      Magiceye (https://mumbai-eyed.blogspot.com)

8)      Manoj (https://www.bloggingtriggers.com)

9)      Rajkumar (http://viewtraveling.com)

10)  Sachin Baikar (http://sachinbaikar.com)

11)  Sunil Deepak (http://www.deepaksunil.com)

 The questions to my nominees are:

1) Could you remember the time for us when you decided to start a blog?

2) What motivates you to blog ?

3) Do you have a feeling that blogging helps you understand the world better and vice versa?

4) Who is your audience and how do you reach out to them?

5) Do you intend to be a professional blogger ever?

6) Do you intend to convert your blog posts into a book?

7) What is the importance of Sun Shine Blogger nomination to you?

8) In addition to blogging, what else is your hobby?

9) Who is your favorite blogger from your genre?

10) How other bloggers’ blogs help you shape your perspective towards life?

11) Are you in the habit of reading? Tell us about your favourite book.

                                              ###

 

 

                                  

Happy Diwali…Minu DIDI!

Before you read this post further, I request you to please watch the ad clip above, for this post is based on the ad.

Though, at first glance, the ad might pass as an emotional pitch smeared with clandestine marketing message, yet to my mind it does more than giving a marketing message. 

Towards the end of the ad, the lad from the ad goes to the domestic help and wishes her by saying “Happy Diwali…Minu DIDI. Now you might say that what is so cardinal about the phrase? The cardinal is the smile that gets etched on the face of Minu (the domestic help) after being addressed as DIDI. The smile reflects the happiness of her acceptance as one of the prime part of the family. The smile reflects the respect that she must have missed for eons. 

I think that the phrase also emphasizes that young lads of India (however modern they might be) still have the emotions of a brother(which in the clamour of news of molestation of girls seem to have evaporated) stashed away in their hearts  for a girl. Amid the vitriolic events of the modesty outrage and molestation, we had forgotten that boys are also made of those emotional neurons that can feel for a lady or a girl, as a sister.

To proffer the appellation of a ‘sister’ to a girl or a lady means a lot in today’s society that is reeling under the debauch and lecherous actions of the people who were once revered and worshiped as intelligentsia of social echelon of India. To address a girl or a lady as sister is also a yardstick of the depths of moral probity and purity of that society.

The boys can hardly feel the pain that a girl has to go through when boys look at them just as a commodity or an outlet for their restive carnal desires. To address a girl as a sister sloughs off the anxiety entrenched in the mind of girls and that is the prime responsibility of the masculine class of society. To provide anxiety-free environs for opposite gender should be cardinal goal for the overbearing patriarchal social fabric.

Furthermore, nowadays, the news platforms are rife with the pieces of information as regards how domestic helps are kept hostages and beaten only for being at the lowest rung of the social stratum. So, in this sense, this ad also scores. It pronounces that humanity is still pulsating in the hearts of Homo sapiens. 

This might seem as the review of the ad but trust me… it is the review of our inner-self. (Though the ad comes across as a par-excellence job on all creative fronts and deserves all scintillating reviews.)

This Diwali we must try to illuminate the hearts of those people with happiness, who matter so much in our lives but get counted so little, so often!

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The Imperfect Society Demanding Perfection!

For some days now, the admission process for children is going on in my city. Parents have been really busy meeting the demands of prestigious schools. Gradually, the results have started trickling. Some are getting the admission, some are not. Those who are not getting are moving on to the other best available options. And those who are getting the admission are getting congratulations on being selected…actually to be crystal clear it is parents who are getting congratulated on their efforts being redeemed because how much a 4-5 years old child  can understand about the honor having been attached to be admitted in a prestigious school of the city.

Normally, being admitted into the best school of the city, very easily translates into a scintillating future for the kid. Parents assume that the life of the kid is settled. Now he/she is all certain to become an engineer, doctor, IAS or IPS. Going by this calculation, when the 200 odd students would pass their 12^th they would automatically be absorbed by the best of the professions of India and the world.

Parents seldom think that studying is also a part of life and life is full of hiccups. The children need the support of their parents most when they find obstructions in their learning process. Mind you, every child is made of different composition of attributes. Some might like maths, some might fear and abhor it. Some might love poetry and painting classes, some might find embracing them difficult.

One more pattern that breathes down the neck of children is that you have to be like your parents. It is as tantamount to blasphemy, if a doctor’s ward has artistic leanings or an engineer’s child is prone to subjects like history instead of maths, physics, chemisty.

Some days ago there was a piece news, from the capital city of my state, that a ward of doctor parents committed suicide. The reason was that he had flunked his 12^th exams. Now we can easily imagine the role of a society (that is full of doctors and engineers and their children excelling) that makes it entirely impossible for a teen to fail an exam and lead a life of respect. Humiliation is the round the clock meal that is served through eyes and tongues of the so called prim and proper society. The society of the so called brilliant brains will make every breath of the flunked teen difficult to pass through his/her nostrils. And the immature, innocent, and raw brain finds it egregious that his own uncle and aunties (who were very affectionate till yesterday) lacerate his/her self -respect with their vitriolic comments.

And the high profile parents are also not very lenient in behaving with the failed kid. Even if they don’t speak with their tongue, their eyes tell it all. And the tender mind finds it tough to handle the sudden change in behavior of society towards him/her. And the new found alienation and stress create havoc in tender brain and only termination of life seems an option to termination of grief.

If the parents who receive congratulations at the time of primary level admission, show courage and provide emotional cushion to their children when they fail an examination, it would be far more meaningful and a worthy contribution to the efforts of their children to struggle against the challenges of life and society altogether.

There was another piece of news from the capital of the country some days ago that a mother strangulated her toddler daughter and then ended her life as well.

The reason behind this gruesome act was that the daughter was mentally challenged and again the society didn’t leave any stone unturned to tell that the daughter was a failed effort of god’s creation and therefore didn’t deserve a normal respect from prim and proper society. The Mother ,who had brought her to the world, when realized that the world would not be so courteous to accept her daughter, decided to send her back to the god’s abode from where she had brought her and then followed her to the place herself, slapping the morality of the society left, right and center.

So, why bother about the society that is still imperfect? Live your life freely and give the society a lesson in how a life should be lived even if it is marred with obstacles and hindrances?

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कुछ ऐसा हुआ के...

कुछ ऐसा हुआ के,

वक़्त गुज़रा भी,

पर ज़िंदगी थमी रही I

कुछ ऐसा हुआ के,

खुशियाँ आईं भी,

पर आँखों में नमी रही I

कुछ ऐसा हुआ के,

कुछ चेहरे मिले भी, 

पर क़ुरबत की कमी रही I

कुछ ऐसा हुआ के, 

बाज़ार मिला भी,

पर व्यापार की कमी रही I

कुछ ऐसा हुआ के,

फूल खिले भी,

पर खुश्बू से बनी नही I

कुछ ऐसा हुआ के, 

क़तरा क़तरा जोड़ दिया,

पर ख्वाब को मिली जमीं नहीं I

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क़ुरबत : नज़दीकियाँ