Moved my photo blog

Due to space issues with my blogger account, I've moved my photo blog to a new URL and it is

http://kuchh-tasveerein.blogspot.com/

I couldn't keep the same blog URL since blogger doesn't delete the URL immediately and waits for 90 days :(

Hope to see your comments there on the blog.

Oye! Main to famous ho gayee...

Poppins and Meira both wrote to me that one of my posts has been plagiarised. Copied word to word and posted as own by one of the bloggers. I was surprised as well as amused. SO after asking Meira how she figured that out she told me how a very personal post written by Kiran was also copied by the same blogger and in one of the comments to Kiran's post she saw the link of my post. Someone had left both my link and the copied one as a comment in response to Kiran's post.

But when I tried to open the link http://2writeornot2write.wordpress.com/2009/03/17/wierd-observations/ I got a message that the blog has been deleted. I was pretty sad that I couldn't see it by my own eyes. But then our smart Boo managed to dig out the post from cache and sent me this link - http://74.125.77.132/search?q=cache:jgLN5ODFKiwJ:2writeornot2write.wordpress.com/tag/observation/+2writeornot2write+weird+observation+lipstick&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ch

And my original post is here - http://doiwrite.blogspot.com/2008/12/observations-about-some-people-in-my.html

And frankly I've only one grudge against the person who copied my post. She had copied my post which was a total time-pass, fully-faltu kind of a post. So my post being highlighted in this fight against plagiarism makes a bit embarrassed. I've written much better posts and how I wish she had selected one of those :P

But must say, she did correct some of the mistakes that are there in mine :D

Jokes apart, I can very well empathize with Kiran for she had written that post from the deepest of her hearts for her hubby dear. If one of my personal posts had been copied I would have been completely outraged too.

Apparently a lot of her posts were copied from other bloggers. God only knows if it was just only a few posts that we managed to figure out or was the entire blog made up of posts picked up from other blogs.

All this makes me wonder why would anyone want to do it. It defeats the whole purpose of writing/blogging. Reproducing a post is one thing and copying and calling it your own is another.

I'm sure that person has learnt the lesson well and will be too scared to attempt something like this again :D

I'm alive...

...and kicking as they say :).

Its just that office has been really REALLY hectic leaving me no time for blogs. Be it reading or writing.

Even after coming back from work, I've at least one client call to take. Sometimes the number goes up to 3 calls in the evening. And the situation is such that Betu takes a status of all the calls scheduled for the evening when I pick him up from his daycare. And the big smile on his face tells how much he wants my time when I tell him only one call today.

But I hope to be back here soon. My reader tells me I've good 800 unread posts. I know time and again I have been away from blogging but then I've come back every time. Right everyone? :D So will it be this time too. I just need to figure out how.

Rendezevous with my camera

I finally decided to give some special focus to one of the things that I love. And that happens to be photography.

So I've started a blog dedicated to the pictures that I've clicked and which I would like to share with all of you. I've titled the blog as "Kuchh Tasveerein - Meri Nazar se".

The pictures there are my amateur attempts at photography. Although there is still a long way to go and so much to learn, I'm sure that I will learn slowly and steadily.

So I shall see you all there :)

Meeting friends

Imagine this - Calling a friend every 1 hour who is traveling to Delhi to find how far is she and where has she reached. And when she arrives, you are hugging each other tight even before the friend takes a step inside the threshold. You are so busy chattering away that it takes you a few minutes to realize you didn't even offer them water after their 7 hour journey.

I'm sure each of you would have imagined two very good friends meeting after a long time. But obviously. But what if I tell you I was meeting her for the first time? Yes..thats right. We WERE meeting for the first time in person. Our main interactions were through the blogs and a little bit from the chats. I'm not talking about anyone else but Mampi! And we were joined soon in this ecstatic bonding session by How do we know.

I just cannot describe how much fun we had. The word 'fun' also doesn't describe what we all felt. And neither will I try to explain it. Nothing will come close to it.

And it was not just us. Anirudh and Howdy's son also had such a wonderful time! For a moment we felt that probably they were having as much fun as we were :D

Not to forget Mampi's hubby who was so sweet because he patiently sat with us yacking females despite being the only male in the house. I guess the 2 young boys can hardly be called company for him.

I had always read that it takes no time to make friends for life. And I could actually feel so this time.
 

Current Status

Current unread entries status in the reader -

• Blogs: 584
• Technical Blogs: 56
• Food Blogs: 172

VERY GOOD progress..isn't it? :D

Current Status

Current unread entries status in the reader -

• Blogs: 762
• Technical Blogs: Marked all as read
• Food Blogs: 184

Good progress..isn't it? :D

What do you do when...

...you open your Reader and see 1000+ unread entries under the head "blogs", 1000+ under "Technology", 248 under "Food Blogs", so on and so forth?

I'm not talking about random hypothetical numbers. I'm talking about REAL figures that I saw when I logged on to my Google Reader after almost 1 month. Yeah..life has been that crazy. The regulars at this blog will know from the frequency (or shall we call it infrequency?) of the posts here lately. The month is about to end and I've written ONLY 2 posts so far! Can you beat that??

Anyhow coming back to the counts in the Reader, those big scary numbers which hit me on the face when I opened it today, I got so nervous that I just closed the darn Reader down. After all I'm just a human. Even Google stops counting after 1000 and starts showing mere 1000+ :D

I had one easy option of marking them all as read. But I didn't want to. Coz I wanna read them all!!! Maybe I can set a target for myself to finish reading them before the arrival of new year. I guess I can definitely try and manage that!

Anyhow the purpose of this post was to let everyone know that I'm still alive and that I will definitely read every one's posts and comment as much as I can! Happy blogging till then everyone!!

Abhi kahani khatam nahi huyee....

And I'm still trying to recover from the aftereffects of the Delhi bloggers meet that happened yesterday that I had to take the day off today :P

There is so much to talk and tell but I'm just so stuck with words so I will leave you all with some pictures of the kids from the party!

Beanie and Betu - 'Pretending' to be such calm and composed kids!

Suki & Betu: Kya masti ho rahi hai!

Anirudh and Brat - Playing with little cars that Suki got for the Brat.

Brat and Anirudh - Enjoying the lightning and lovely monsoon wind in the balcony!

Puddi, Beanie, Anirudh and Brat - Enjoying the popcorns!

Lil Peanut - Trying to grab whatever she could lay hands on from the table!

Little T - Ever so smiling!

Chubbocks - He has such a beautiful smile!

Lovely weather it was yesterday evening!

Huye huye hum...mast!

We, the Delhi bloggers, met today finally after making plans and talking about meeting 'someday soon' so many times!

And it surely was a full house what with 7-8 of us, some had come with their hubbies so about 4-5 guys and about 10 kids of all sizes crawling\running around everywhere!

Me and Suki reached early, thanks to Betu prodding me every 5 mins "hum kab jayenge?" ever since I told him that he will meet lot of friends today evening. And partially thanks to almost zero traffic on the roads. So although the time was set for 6 pm, we reached at 5:45 itself feeling a little embarassed about our over enthusiasm.

But with MM and her hubby, you definitely will be at ease very quickly! Soon a very sleepy brat and a chirpy bean trotted into the room! Beanie started to chatter up in her own baby language and I just couldn't help but smile looking at her. Brat took a while to warm up with Betu but soon they were inseparable creating such a ruckus that both me and MM had to keep asking them to calm down! :)

Around 6:30 RaisingT walked in with T and her sister nostalgic chica! T is the most adorable baby I have ever ever met! He is always smiling and such a happy child. As I said "hi baby!" he immediately gave me a big happy smile and waved his hand! And towards the end he was so sleepy but even then he was smiling and gurgling whereas other babies usually get so cranky! I even got puchhas from him on both my cheeks! RaisingT was so sweet too! She had returned from her Singapore trip at 2 am today itself and yet she came over!

The next to pop in was Chandni and her boy, nomad with a desk job. She was another chirpy and bubbly personality. And she was cribbing for loosing out on those malai kofta's the other day when Suki came over and was asking me when is she going to be invited next! Chandni,
soon is all I can say right now.

Then came birds eye view with chubbocks, puddi and her hubby! Puddi is as cute and cuddly as she looks in the picture! And BEV is very beautiful! She had baked a lovely chocolate cake and it was still warm when she handed it over to us! Ummm...I still have the taste of it in my mouth! It was that yum! She also got super soft dhoklas from a shop close to her place. They were just awesome!

Y dropped in straight from her way back to Delhi from her Jaipur trip. Peanut was a quiet cute little baby obviously tired from the 5 hour journey! And Y, she is so quiet that it took me a while to really absorb that she is the same bubbly person as she seems from her blog!

And MM and Y are such fakes when they talk about their weight issues. In fact looking at them made me think that its me who should be talking about weight issues and not them! MM can easily be passed for a girl doing her graduation! She looked so cool in that lovely cream dress and yes when she talks, she talks :) I still can't get over how beautifully she had decorated her house. Right from the stairs to the bathroom! Yes even the bathroom!

Around 8:15 or so Sraikh of ASAAN walked in with her kids. I am really in awe with this woman! For me she is no less than a superwoman managing kids and house in a country like US where you have no helping hands unlike in India. And here we are who crib about our 1 or 2 kids even when we have maids to our rescue!

We hogged on the yummy malpuas that Suki had got, popcorns, patties, wafers and but of course the yummy chocolate cake and dhoklas from BEV.

And I'm still reeling and trying to soak in all that happened in these 3 hours today evening!

There's still so much more to write about but I guess it shall be another post looking at how long this one has become already :)


~~ Keep Smiling! ~~

Sent on my BlackBerry®.

Meeting Suki...

Suki has already written her bit about her visit to my house quite elaborately but now I will cover up what she left out, intentionally or unintentionally :D

Lets start from the beginning. When she reached my place around quarter to nine, I saw this little bandanna clad girl with a big wide smile on her face who looked not any older than someone who would be studying in 11th standard. So must say I was quite awed by her size as I wondered about the serious, intense and wonderful writings that come out from this little girl? :D

Her Mausi had come along to drop her. So the moment she entered the house out came the lovely sondesh from her backpack. And I like a total fool started to munch on them even before asking them for a glass of water. And like a total moron was talking with m mouth full with the sondesh! Sheesh..I really know how to make a fool of myself in front of others. But what to do. I just couldn't resist. Soon after her Mausi left after I told her that we will drop her back home by 10:30 PM or so.

In the beginning Betu was hiding behind me as Suki was trying to say hello to him. But for the 5 minutes I disappeared from the scene to make tea for Hubby who entered home almost along with Suki from work, this is what I saw:

They both were playing together and were too engrossed wrestling with each other!

Since it was past 9 PM, I asked her if we shall talk over dinner to which she promptly agreed saying she was totally famished. I do not remember what all we talked about but we kept talking and talking while eating the dinner. And she kept raving about the malai kofta and the daal paranthas although I felt the salt was little more than required in the kofta. It did not at all feel as if I was meeting her for the first time! Not even for one single moment.

Betu was so eager to play with 'Suki Didi' that he kept asking me when will her dinner get over :D So once done, they both got down to play with the lego blocks. And attempts after attempt they finally managed to make one really tall tower.
And the tower was promptly broken by Betu once I had clicked a picture. You can still see the remains of hte tower in Suki's hands :)

When it was time for Suki to go, Anirudh kept asking why did she have to leave. I tried to explain but he was quite sad. So we told him that Suki didi will come and stay over at our place one day and only when Suki said yes to that, he kind of accepted her going.

I'm so looking forward to going with her one day roaming around the market and just spending time with her again.

Happy Birthday my dear blog!

Today evening as I was talking to How do we know, she asked me when did I start my blog. And I drew a blank. I was not sure if its been a year yet or not. So I told her, approximately around a year.

But as I sat down to blog about our meeting, I remembered this conversation about the conception about my blog and thought let me check the date of my first post. And when I did, I realised I was just round the corner! Tomorrow, on May 3rd, it will be whole one year since I stepped into this blogging world...full, steady steps and posted my first post! 218 posts (219 if I include this one too!) and more than 400 if I count the number of posts in Betu's blog too!

And I get so awed and think "Really?? Me?? More than 400 posts??" and I just shake my head in disbelief! Yes, the feeling is still of a disbelief even when these numbers are right in front of my face!

But I guess I better start believing it and open those champagne bottles to celebrate the first birthday of my dear blog! OK..OK...I know its still some minutes before the clock strikes 12 but I just cant wait! :D

Happy Birthday my dear blog and hey to me too as I complete a year of being a blogger!

It was my first time!

Its a famous saying "There is always a first time !" and it I had a "my first time" moment today - first time to meet a blogging buddy - IN PERSON! I was quite excited about the thought of meeting someone off the blogging world and when I met her, she reciprocated the exact same feeling! I met "How do we know" today evening. But hey, let me start from the beginning.

After exchanging a few emails and some phone calls, we decided on the time and venue. When I reached the destination I called her up to see where she was. She said she was nearby and walking towards Nirulas. I waited for her just outside the entrance and told her what I was wearing. And then I saw a little girl , who eemed no older than a first year college student, walking towards me with a look that said "Are you ~nm?" and when she was close enough, neither of us even asked to confirm our guesses and said "Hey! Finally we meet up!" And then we went in and sat down. I don't even remember how we started our conversation. And it somehow didn't seem we were meeting for the first time. Not to me at least. HDWK, did you?

And soon after we both ordered icecreams and sat down digging at our chikoo and anjeer icecreams. We talked about our babies and our blogs and our blog friends and our work and our family and about Delhi and about Hyderabad and ...just about everything. We were there for about 40 minutes and time just flew.

We have promised each other to meet up again soon! Especially since both our work places are so close to each other.

How do we know, I can't tell you how much fun it was to meet you! And I so want to meet your little one - Ishaan some day too!

Its been so long...

..since I have been away from my blogs. Literally and completely away. I felt so disjointed and so disinterested to even go and take a look at them in all these days for reasons that I would not go into now since I'm over with them and feel happy that I decided to make a comeback. As I was writing this word 'comeback' I felt so funny as if I'm a great superstar who's making a comeback and as if all my audience has been eagerly waiting for me to write :) Hehehe..

And why I decided to start writing is that I was suddenly feeling quite happy since yesterday afternoon even though nothing amazing or out of the world has happened to make me feel this way. Probably I was just going through this 'off-mood' phase. It was so bad that nothing seemed remotely interesting or nice to read or write about. I didn't even want to read the other blogs much. I did try to make a forceful and strained effort to read and comment but stopped after a few random ones. It was so much so that my reader tells me I've 278 unread posts in all of my blog subscriptions *whoopie*...you guys have been going crazy writing or what? :D And I'm so scared looking at the number that I've to catch up on..once again. *whew*

Anyways, whatever it was I'm glad its gone. I'm sure you will get used to my such mood swings if you visit me here often. :D

Lots to catch up!

Last week with in-laws visiting and then my friend dropping by for 2 days I had literally no time to read or write blogs. So yesterday when I finally logged on and opened my Google Reader I saw 163 unread posts just under the blogs section. I almost fell off my chair thinking how many posts I need to catch up with. Just a few days and so many posts written by so many bloggers? Gosh!

And at the same time I realised how many blog subscriptions I've under my belt and I also kind of felt left out since I didn't get to read them as and when they were written! So yesterday feeling something like I this I just closed my Reader. I got really bogged down by the number.

But today I decided I will read them all. No getting up from the table till everything is cleaned off from the plate :)

So all you guys who didn't get any comments from me on your posts and didn't find any new posts also on my blog, you will get to see them all now! As they say "Better late than never!"

Edited:
Its 12:15 Am on Nov 2, 2007 and I just finished reading and commenting on all the pending piled up posts! Yay! I almost managed to stick to my word of finishing them all today! :D A 15 min margin is allowed no? And now you know why would there be comments from me on posts written days ago :P

Where are you SM?

Everyday I wonder about SM (Misformommy.blogspot.com) whose blog got hacked by someone not so while ago. And I wonder hows she coping up with it. I wonder if she started her blog again? I hope she did!

SM, if you read this or learn from anyone that I was looking for you, do write in here or mail me at doiwrite@gmail.com

After looking at SM's blog hijack, I took backup of my blog using Adobe writer. How I wish SM can retrieve her blogs back! How I wish!!

Addendum : SM - I've made a word file of the posts that I could retrieve from my Google Reader and saved it. Let me know where I can email it to you!