The 7*7 Blogging Award 

An interesting award comes my way called the  the 7*7 blogging award and Deboshree of Saddi Delhi has passed on this meaningful one to me. Meaningful because this is one award that is going to make me go back to my archives and dwell upon how I fared in the last 2 years. Thank you Deboshree for sending this across and making me and my blog feel so appreciated. You all should go and check out Deboshree’s blog  to be charmed by her wit and her beautiful writing.

To begin this, I need to spell out the rules first:

1: Tell everyone something about yourself that nobody else knows.

2: Link to a post I think fits the following categories: The Most Beautiful Piece, Most Helpful Piece, Most Popular Piece, Most Controversial Piece, Most Surprisingly Successful Piece, Most Underrated Piece, Most Pride-worthy Piece.

3: Pass this on to 7 fellow bloggers.

I. Something about myself that you may not have known before : As a child I wanted to marry a Japanese guy because I was crazy about Jackie Chan!!! It wasn’t until later that I got to know that he is actually Chinese. I may have seen all this movies. Yes, every one of them. I thought that all Japanese would know how to fight like him; as if Kung Fu was embedded in their genetic makeup. Years, later I might have realized part of that dream because I met my husband when he was working for a Japanese company! ( corny!!)

II. The Most Beautiful Piece, Most Helpful Piece, Most Popular Piece, Most Controversial Piece, Most Surprisingly Successful Piece, Most Underrated Piece, Most Pride-worthy Piece.

1. The Most Beautiful Piece -”She came, she saw and she conquered”

This post, in my opinion is the most beautiful post for one reason alone – Mimi. You have to see it to believe it!!

2. Most Helpful Piece  - ”When will I be ready to be a Parent”.

I penned this post with absolutely nothing in mind but I got series of emails from friends and random strangers about how I reflected their state of mind in my post word to word. I was very happy that many people found the post helpful with respect to coming in terms with their feelings about having a baby. I had to struggle a lot and I realize that many people do too.

3. Most Popular Piece – Thoughts on the year-end, an anniversary and a Black Forest Cake

This post was hugely popular because of the content and the photographs. On the day I posted it, it received 500 hits in a few hours. I received many emails and plenty of mentions on twitter and Facebook about how much everybody loved the post and could relate to the growing old thing.  The photographs received a lot of appreciation and found their way on Tastespotting and Foodgawker. I have realized that some of my better posts are the ones that I have typed out without a thought in my head. Feelings, emotions just tumble out to convey what my heart truly feels at that moment. I zone out for that amount of time and am absent to the rest of the world.  Writing such posts has made me believe that I am meant to write and I shall never give this up.

4. Most Controversial Piece- Living the Guilt free life

I got plenty of emails after I put this post on my blog. I was facing a lot of flak from some people in my life about a certain decision and I was very frustrated. I wrote this from a hotel room in London and writing this put many things in perspective. The comments and emails were so encouraging that I quickly found my center. Thanks to all the people who read , emailed and commented.

5. Most Surprisingly Successful Piece -A date to remember

When I wrote this post, I had just begun to find my feet in writing fiction and this was the first such piece that I dared to put on my blog for people to read. I did not expect people to read it and comment because it wasn’t spectacular by any stretch of the imagination. But because it was different compared to my other posts, it became hugely successful and I found more confidence which resulted in a full blown novel on my other blog.

6. Most Underrated Piece – An experiment that was a White Bean Salad

I think this post was a little ahead of its time on my blog. I wanted to do something different in terms of writing, the subject matter, using analogy etc but it didn’t quite make the impact I had hoped for. It still remains one of my favourite pieces of writing  and the salad recipe was a good one too.

7. Most Pride-worthy Piece – Diff’rent Strokes & Moments of Joy

It is a tie between two posts that are so close to my heart.

Diff’ rent Strokes is a one of the first posts that I truly enjoyed writing. It talks about a dilemma that I face constantly while bringing up a child who belongs to two starkly different cultures.

Moments of Joy – Pure joy is a kind that you cannot really share with anyone. It passes in a fraction of a second but it remains with you for the rest of your life. I have written about such joys in this post.

III. Pass this on to 7 fellow bloggers

I would like to take this opportunity to pass on my appreciation to Cassandra, Bulbul, Jahn, Nashira, Prateek, Deepthi, Lahari who are fantastic mix of personal, fashion and food bloggers.

Thank you again, Deboshree as I enjoyed writing this post. It was fun to go back and read the older posts and laugh myself silly at the little things that seemed so awful at that point in time.

Happy 2nd Blog Anniversary

This comes 2 days too late. I was so disappointed about why I didn’t plan it better. I flipped through many a books to see if I could do something spectacular for this day or run a giveaway but nothing materialized. I ranted on twitter and to all my friends who listened.

But ultimately I felt I could do a post without any food in it. It is allowed,isn’t it? My blog wouldn’t mind either, I am sure.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BLOG

2 whole years of blogging, eating, feeding, baking, cooking, thinking, photographing and writing has been a mean adventure. I feel like my toddler of 29 months and this blog were the sole reasons why I maintained my sanity all this time. I realized so many new things about myself and met so many wonderful people – bloggers and non-bloggers alike.

On my blog anniversary when I was worrying about how I completely missed baking something incredible, I was actually walking a Walkathon for Cancer Awareness, here in Bahrain. It was so much fun and at the same time important. It meant this fantastic cause was supported by so many individuals and Corporate alike to fund treatment and research for Cancer. The walk happened early evening when there was a nip in the air but that did nothing to quell the excitement of the huge crowd that generously donated and walked their way to finish the 3.5 km mark.

This was the first time I had participated and I enjoyed it a lot.

I hope the next time there is a run so that would really help me start preparing for my long haul (half marathon) end of this year.

For now I have photos of the walk which appeared in the newspaper today. The hunk in the black tshirt is my dear hubby.

A Guest Post by James Claire on Kindness

I am an avid reader of Bahrain This Month magazine.  As soon as I get a copy of BTM, I flip directly to the last page to read through the “ Last Word‘ written by Mr. James Claire. I admire the way he can pick up the most mundane of topics and turn it into something absolutely spectacular to ponder about.  Some people are gifted like that. They see that special something in anything banal ( banal to the eyes of people, like me). I feel it is an extraordinary ability to pick up an emotion, issue, thing, person and then weave the magic of words. Most important, there is always a lesson, a moral, a view-point at the end of each of his articles. I have keenly observed the way he writes and cannot find enough words to show how much it have impressed me. So when our paths crossed on twitter ( @jamesclaire1) I decided to follow him right away.

James responded immediately by following back and we checked each other’s blog out.  James blogs at http://thescribe-jamesclaire.blogspot.com/ where he not only writes about what he sees on a daily basis but also about his life. There is so much wisdom there, that I cannot help but get addicted to his posts like I am to his column in Bahrain This Month. I invited him to do a guest post on my blog as I want everybody who reads my blog to also know and read James’s blog. I am sure that each one of you will enjoy it as much as I did. So while you do enjoy what you read, do not forget to spread the word.

Thank you, James. It really is such a privilege to have you write here for my space.

James sent me a wonderful article on  Kindness. I was impressed and touched, all the same. He has showered me with a lot of undeserved appreciation ( which I pleaded with him to edit out but he wouldn’t have it any other way!!) . So, people, here is James’s note on ” Kindness” and how important this emotion is  to him personally.

P.S.  I have NOT paid him write all these nice things about me!! But it sure feels nice

On Kindness – by James Claire

It is an honor to have been asked to guest post on my friend and blog master Anita Menon’s – A Slice Of My Lyfe. Without Anita, I was but an aging dinosaur with no clue of much in the techno blogosphere of the modern age. A dinosaur who had almost given up hope of learning such. A little afraid or shy to return to school and classrooms over the age of 40 to learn such things , especially when others profess, “It’s easy”. Everyone else, well except my parents, are face-booking, blogging and are up to date. When did I fall behind? I’m scared to attend classes for such things out of fear I’d be the only mature student ! Classes too are inconvenient and expensive.

What I needed was the kindness of a friend to just sit me down and explain clearly what I needed to know. But where to find such kindness in this very often capitalistic, money hungry life style we all seem to be leading in such a hurry. To shorten a lengthening story, Anita offered the kindness of time, skill and friendship to teach me. And therefore a guest blog on her site should be about one of my friend’s greatest assets, her unquestioning kindness to the world.

I appreciate kindness more than most. Many years ago, in a past life so to speak, I had a vastly successful other career. At the height of it and with multiple events occurring around the launch of my latest book, I received a Christmas card from my childhood best friend. Until that day we had spoken on the phone every week, hand written letters to each other at least monthly to tell of new girl friends, new jobs being offered us and how we both missed the high school and primary school days of our recent youth. This day, too busy with my own success, I did not open and read his Christmas Card, but instead sat a work load of papers on top of it and summarily forgot its arrival. A few days later, Christmas had been and gone. Sitting in my office alone,I received a phone call from another school yard friend. They asked a simple question, “Had I heard the sad news of his suicide.”

They say, “time heals all wounds,”, well let me tell you it does not.

To this day I can still feel the guilt and shame of picking up the Christmas Card from under the pile of work papers, as I sat the phone down and slumped back into my chair looking at that envelope. Never had something so simple as an envelope scared me so much. What were the contents?

While I agree, even had I opened the card earlier things may still have reached the  same historical conclusion, it is the fact that he left the world not knowing that I was indifferent to everyone upon it. That I cared! That as my closest friend he had the love of a thousand suns within me! He should have known that I was the sort of person who would answer a card arrived with an immediate answer or call especially at such a heart-felt time of year..

Ralph Waldo Emmerson said,” You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon,  it will be too late…………”

And I so agree.

Procrastination is not a blessing. Many people today see me as being brash, impetuous, of not thinking before I do and say things. Some who truly do not know me, see it as immaturity, a cavalier attitude with others hearts and minds or simply as me being foolish. Thankfully not many people have experienced the sadness and shock that I did back in 1990. More than most people, I value speed of saying what I think and feel, for I never want another to pass without my emotions being stated. If I meet you and you are kind, I want to tell you and buy you a gift to thank you for that kindness. If you slow down entering a merge lane and allow my car to enter traffic, I will take the time to wave and mouth “thank You”, because I am thankful for your kindness. If you take the time to meet me, or simply stop to say “Hi” in passing, I will take the time to buy you a coffee or stand and talk, because I thank you for your kindness.  We are an evolving species. We have as a race, achieved great things. But if we lose humanity and kindness, respect and appreciation in the race for technological advancement then have we achieved anything at all? I think not!

For now, I adore my home of Bahrain and the friendship of such amazing people  as Anita , who offered kindness to teach a dinosaur the ways of the internet, and then offered the kindness of allowing me to Guest blog on her site to speak of such trivialities as human kindness!

Perhaps the world is slowly changing a few degrees to the better. The cynic within doubts it.

But the dreamer inside me hopes that  it will one day come to pass that the world is as emotionally forward, and fast to thank and offer kindness as the giga-bytes and nano-chips which we pursue in the name of evolution.

Oh what a wonderful world it would be!!

Things I haven’t done in a long long time…

Now that I am back in Bahrain and still sans Mimi, I get a lot of  free time to loiter in my own home trying  to figure out how I am going to expend myself the entire day. I listen to the radio, I read some, I browse the internet, bake a cake, watch tv and spend a lot of time looking outside the large windows in my living room.

Right outside I get to see the most heartening sight from my fourth floor apartment. There happens to be  an all boys arabic school dot outside my home. Early in the morning I observe them standing in lines saying their morning prayers. Thereafter they disperse and go their respective classes. After an hour or so, some class or the other has their games class which means I get to see tiny specks of red and white spilling out on to the basketball court. Their teacher splits them into teams for a game of basket ball. Sometimes I see a group playing a serious game. Over a steaming cup of black coffee, I find myself cheering and jeering at them. I get so involved in their game that I lose track of time and enjoy myself immensely. I talk aloud to myself, chiding them when a player misses a pass or makes a wrong one. When the bell rings, they all abandon a good game to my disbelief and walk away. I feel like calling them back to start again.

Really silly, I know.

After one such angst-ridden morning, I caught myself reflecting upon a time when I used to regularly play basketball after school. I even played when I was pursuing my MBA in Pune. All the exam tension, placement stress vanished after a quick 30 minute session at the basket ball court. After I joined my job through campus placements, I don’t remember a time when I have ever played any sport at all. I had dreams of learning how to play tennis, taking up swimming seriously and even attempting squash. None of them materialized. I do work out obsessively, but it is different as compared to the joy that I realized, I get from playing a sport. There’s no pressure of doing certain number of sets of crunches or burning calories. Playing a sport ensures that it engages you in such a way that you don’t bother about the calories burnt, rather enjoying the activity itself. A huge difference.

When was the last time I played a SPORT, really? Its been more than 5 years now!!

This lead me to think about all the lovely things I hadn’t done in a long time.

PICNICS – When was the last time I went for a picnic. Snacks, drinks, frisbees and quiet little board game with friends and family on a lovely day at the beach or somewhere scenic? It has been forever. Last I remember hitting the beach at Mithapur with my class 12th schoolmates for a picnic with food and frolic. I have such beautiful memories of that evening. Sigh!

Arts & Crafts – I don’t remember the last time I might have doodled! Was it to pass time during a boring lecture in college or while time away at an office meeting? It was mostly an absent-minded effort. No conscious effort to create anything beautiful, funny or remotely interesting.

PLANT A SAPLING - We had the loveliest garden growing up in my small town of Mithapur. Well it was mostly because  my father was passionate about it. For hours, I used to watch him, labouring away, watering, sowing seeds, tending to the vegetable patch and enjoying the fruits of his labour. He would grow the most succulent of gourds, the snappiest of lady fingers, plump tomatoes and all the local produce possible seasonally. I used to help him out sometimes planting a rose stem here, burying the hollyhock seeds there and plucking out weeds. I haven’t done this for years and absolutely miss the joy of watching a  beautiful red rose bloom and the beans saplings sprout.

One can argue that these joys have been replaced by other joys but then I can’t help being nostalgic and missing these simple joys. When people ask me what I enjoy doing, I almost always mention that I love shopping, working out, clubbing with friends ( before Mimi) and browsing the internet. Nothing wrong with that really, but I know that these activities don’t really give me the same sense of joy but are merely acts of filling my time with things to do.

Do I really enjoy them? Yes it brings me joy but only for a brief moment. It is a life of ultimate highs and spiralling lows. It leaves no lasting impression in my heart and it never really gives me a sense of fulfillment.

The funny thing is I know it all, yet I feel I am incapable of changing anything.