And the winner is ..

October 20, 2012
And just a week later, the post 'In the Blink of an eye' wins the Gold Batom award for the first time, in the 32nd edition of the Blog-A-Ton! For more on the Blog-A-Ton, click here.

October 12, 2012
Elated to announce that the post Lasting Impressions was one of the three winning entries at the Indifiction Workshop; a workshop for interested fiction writers, where constructive criticism is the key and the intent is to help each other become better writers! For more on the Indifiction workshop, click here.

August 23, 2012
And it happens again! A dear reader of Kaleidoscope, a very helpful critic, someone whose comments I always look forward to not just for the encouragement and appreciation, but also for the pointers and constructive feedback that she offers - Jayashree S of JaishWrites, as she's known throughout the blogosphere, feels I deserve to be nominated for the Liebster award, something I feel very honored about!!! So, without further ado, hoping that I do not appear pompous I'll put it up on my very own Wall of Fame! Here goes!

Now, Jaish also does want me to state eleven things that I feel are required to have a happy and fulfilling life. These could be things, principles, rules, anything! Here's my list, not necessarily in that order!

1. A passion. Any passion. Something that helps me look forward to the day, gives me a purpose, something that drives me insane crazy at times and yet at other times is the only way I can hold on to my sanity.

2. The courage to change the things I can, the serenity to accept the things I cannot and the wisdom to know the difference. Well, I cheated a little because that makes it three things, but it is one single prayer isn't it?

3. Tolerance. Buckets of it! For those times, when even counting to ten becomes an impossible task!

4. Family. Includes blood, extended and friends!

5. Books. Whatever form they may be in. But they are an integral part of me! They are the mechanism by which you can have multiple personalities, tour the world at no cost (Okay, at a very meager price!), live lives one has only dreamed of, transport you across eras. Whoever said, they have only one life to live hasn't heard of books (so said some famous personality). 

6. Self-confidence. I might give up work every few years for reasons that might make total sense one day and seem silly the next, I might change my passions by the day, I might not even know what I want but there's one thing that's constant. That whatever's humanely possible, if I want it and give it my heart and soul, I can do it. The day I lose that confidence, am done for! 

7. Self-Respect and Dignity. In today's world where crime is heavily rampant and respite hardly seems to be in sight, this is an absolutely necessity! I cannot be blamed for wanting this, can I?

8. My sleep. I have come to love those snoozes and those last precious five minutes, just before I really wake up! After all, this is the one which can transport you to the world of dreams!

9. An education. I know there a lot of people who would probably argue otherwise stating that life can be just as fruitful even without it as hundreds of examples around us prove, but then again this is my opinion isn't it? 

10. My beliefs. About anything and everything that exists under the big blue sky. 

11. Last but not the least, how can I forget pani-puri? Put me on an island with a never ending plate of pani-puri (and a book!) and I'm all set! Well, don't take it literally.

May 28, 2012

Delighted and honored that the post A date, a wedding and a baby won the runner-up award (one of 20 runner ups) at the Indiblogger - Internet is fun with Vodafone contest - content based contest with independent judging and no voting! Of 284 entries, there was one first prize, two seconds, three thirds and 20 runner ups. Congratulations to all the winners!!! A heartfelt 'Thank you' to each and every encouraging word that came my way. 

April 29, 2012
When I first started my blog it was simply a bunch of my scribblings put together. When I think back to those days, I feel ashamed that all I wrote was a post in a whole year. Yes, you heard it right. Then in 2007, Kaleidoscope went dormant for a while, or rather it just died. In 2011, it rose from the ashes again like a Phoenix and has been going strong ever since. I have penned down my musings on various topics, some fiction, some real life events, some humorous, some captivating and when I read those I do feel a little good about myself. Indiblogger exposed me to a whole new world of bloggers - an enthusiastic, chirpy, determined set of people confident in voicing their opinions and I made quite a few blogging friends. The reader base of Kaleidoscope also increased manifold. Close friends, fellow bloggers and readers leave comments, exchange perspective and help with some constructive feedback (identifying loopholes in fiction which is really helpful!) and I have to say, I am addicted to blogging. Indiblogger's motto is "We blog, therefore we are." I agree!

So when not one, not two but three lovely people nominated me for the Versatile Blogger award, I must say I was a little overwhelmed. My blog had reached the hearts of some and I was satisfied. Now here was someone gifting me an award - and I am thinking huh? What? A blog award? Wow. Well, I feel hugely appreciated and its heartening to know that someone feels that your blog deserves the award. Thank you Indu Chibber and C. Suresh for the honour. And a very dear fellow blogger just reminded me that she too had nominated me for this back in January 2012. Somehow I missed the notification. Thank you Seema and I am sorry I missed it! So without further ado, here it is! 

Now, usually award winners are required to post 7 things about themselves. I recently was part of a 10 Day You challenge, so instead of 7, I am going to give you 9! Here's 9 things about me that I would love to share. (There's also 10 Secrets and 8 Fears and so on if you're interested!)

Award winners are also encouraged to nominate 15 other blogs they think are deserving of the award. I am still trying to find my way in the blogging world and I do not have a lot of blogs in my reading library yet - so I am going to bend the rules a little, because I feel there could be others in the same boat too. (Uh-oh, I see the veteran bloggers start to shake their heads already!) I would like to make the requirements as optional. So, the below award nominees, if interested, are welcome to share 7 tidbits of informations about themselves and nominate other bloggers only if they feel like doing so. Also, instead of the versatile blogger, I would like to open it out to a few more awards. This is just my way of saying, I really enjoy reading your blogs! Please click on the award names to claim the same. Do remember to notify any nominees. 

1. 'A Blog with Substance' award to A-Musing. 

2. 'Your Blog Makes us Smile' award to Life is like this and My World, My Thoughts, My Musings

3. 'Sweet Blogger' award to For the love of writing

4. 'Genuine Blogger' award to Rachna Says

5. 'Inspiration Award' to Jeete Raho (for your work as well!)

6. 'One Lovely Blog' award to The Chronicles of my destiny, When the muse strikes and Sangry words.

7. 'Interesting Blog award' to One grain amongst the storm. 

This is not to say that there weren't other deserving blogs out there, but these are the ones I discovered in the past year that I have come to follow religiously. Some of my friends also blog so well that I am tempted to pass this along to them too, but they are people I have known first as friends and then as bloggers. The list above - all strangers to me, so completely unbiased! Also I am guessing that established bloggers like CyberNag, Ahamkaara, Some Facts, Some Nonsense and many that I have have missed naming, might already have been bombarded with a plethora of these.

Needless to say, I am going to try and keep blogging as much as I can, for as long as I can and I wish you do the same too! Happy Blogging! To blogs, publications and much more!

Note: This is a work-in-progress post timed reverse chronologically.

I would love to hear your views!