What's new?

Its been some time since I posted something new here. I was working on changing layouts and designs and the only thing that was constant during this activity was 'losing patience' - Either the designs on the web world did not entice me or those that made me feel OK were missing few technicalities that I prefer. It was hard to focus on creativity, features, design that appeals to the eyes, a layout that shows the important things etc., - all at the same time and I ended up losing my old template and those things attached to it. Blah...blah...I can go on and on for not blogging for a while. But I am back with a new inbuilt template for now and a fresh look in terms of blogging.

Moved on to...
http://reflectionsraji.wordpress.com/

Please mark the new link and do continue to visit, comment and follow me on this blogging arena. Cheers!!!

An Award

Raji.U, my fellow blogger friend has honored me with a blogger award. Thanks Raji!

1...2...3...

I was tagged by my blogger friend 'Raji' as usual and here goes the 'number' tag:

1 Sister - A Guide, A Scholar
2 Countries - I have lived so far - India, USA
3 Best friends - My idea of best friend was different till I came to US but I am glad I have 3 now - Saranya, Mohan and Naren
4 languages - I can understand - Tamil, English, Hindi and Telugu
5 celebrities who I look upon - Steve Jobs, Sachin Tendulkar, Indra Nooyi, Robin Sharma, Sharath Babu
6 places that I love to visit before I die - Italy, Singapore, Bahamas, TajMahal, London, Moon :)
7 TV shows that I like to watch - Airtel Super Singer, American Idol, Who dares wins, Are you smarter than a 5th grader?, CSI Miami, F.R.I.E.N.D.S, Neeya Naana?
8 media personalities who I like - Abhishek Bachan, Rajat Kapoor, Rahul Bose, Konkana Sen Sharma, Kamal Haasan, Rajinikanth, Matt Damon, Christopher Nolan
9 things that I do frequently - Blogging, Listening to Music, Cleaning, Reading, Web surfing, Driving, Drinking Coffee, Cutting nails, Making to do lists
10 movies of my lifetime - Anbae Sivam, Dil Chahta Hai, Jab we met, Cast Away, Alaipayudhey, Varusham 16, Ratatouille, Taare Zameen Par, Morning Raaga, Pursuit of happyness

And I leave the tag to whoever wants to take it (not many blogger friends, u know? ;))

A 'nostalgic' blog...

It's been two years since I started to blog. Same day in 2007, I remember sitting in the dining table and thinking of what format, font size of the text, background, theme and mainly how to start as a blogger. Two years passed so fast and I am thinking what has changed in terms of my blogging...(Refer image :))

Being nostalgic, I took few of the posts randomly and read those again which brought back memories...

Random picks on each category:
Music:
http://reflectionsraji.blogspot.com/2009/05/varaprasadham.html
Movies:
http://reflectionsraji.blogspot.com/2008/12/friday-films.html
Books:
http://reflectionsraji.blogspot.com/2008/01/bookish-my-1-2-list.html
Motivation:
http://reflectionsraji.blogspot.com/2009/03/living-guide.html
Business & Management:
http://reflectionsraji.blogspot.com/2008/05/mr-inspirer.html
Personal:
http://reflectionsraji.blogspot.com/2008/03/my-firstlast-penfriend.html
Tags:
http://reflectionsraji.blogspot.com/2008/12/commentakshari-s.html
Sports:
http://reflectionsraji.blogspot.com/2007/12/lax-go-getter.html
Love:
http://reflectionsraji.blogspot.com/2007/09/this-is-chemistry-balancing-equation.html
Romance:
http://reflectionsraji.blogspot.com/2007/12/feel-it.html
Health :
http://reflectionsraji.blogspot.com/2007/10/health-is-wealth-series-1.html
Language:
http://reflectionsraji.blogspot.com/2008/11/englipish-speaking-woman-in-me.html
Jokes:
http://reflectionsraji.blogspot.com/2007/08/tamil-mokkais-of-day.html
Cooking:
http://reflectionsraji.blogspot.com/2007/08/yummy-ladoos.html
Habit:
http://reflectionsraji.blogspot.com/2007/12/wake-up-call.html
Haiku:
http://reflectionsraji.blogspot.com/2009/02/blog-post.html
Festival:
http://reflectionsraji.blogspot.com/2008/03/thiruvizha-kozham.html

My attempts/creations:
Drawing:
http://reflectionsraji.blogspot.com/2009/03/carnation.html
Song:
http://reflectionsraji.blogspot.com/2008/12/saami-kitta.html
Dance:
http://reflectionsraji.blogspot.com/2008/12/hahaha.html
Poem:
http://reflectionsraji.blogspot.com/2008/10/known-stranger.html
Contest:
http://reflectionsraji.blogspot.com/2007/08/ace-anagrams.html
Puzzle:
http://reflectionsraji.blogspot.com/2007/10/my-little-masterpiece.html
Quiz:
http://reflectionsraji.blogspot.com/2007/11/t20-captions.html
Tunes:
http://reflectionsraji.blogspot.com/2008/09/my-first-attempt-on-this-casio.html

Of all these, I am missing one category which I intend to do in the coming years - Writing stories :) It's not new to me and I did write a story few years back which was a hit among friends but I lost that story somewhere, somehow :( Will write one when I have a definite storyline in my mind.

I dedicate this blog to my blog 'Raji's Reflections' itself for its second year anniversary :) And, I take this moment to thank everyone who read, commented, honored, praised, criticised me. You all are truly a driving force for me to write more...

More to come...

With smiles,
Raji :)

Namesake...

There are few times when people questioned me reading my blogs and its comments. And some of my blog posts come as a reason of being tagged by my blogger friend with the same name as mine 'Raji' :) Some of my friends got confused and asked who that was? Some of them even asked if I am the one who's writing those comments. If I had to comment myself on my blogs other than replying to the comments from others, why do I need to write even or why will I comment with the same name? To make the # of comments grow bigger is not the purpose of my blogs...Even if noone comments, I will write till I have interest and time...And if you see, her comments will have 'Rajalakshmi Umapathy' as the nameline..Although it rhymes with 'Rajalakshmi Muthukumarasamy', we are two different people but go by the same shorter versions of our name 'Raji'. Can't people with the same names blog and comment? ;) Enna kodumai Saravanan idhu? And now, don't ask me who Saravanan is? If you are a Rajini fan, you should know this punch dialogue :)

Thank You!!!

With the 285th post completed yesterday, I am honored to receive this blog award from a fellow blogger. It adds motivation to write more and I extend my heartful thanks to the person who awarded me this. Thanks :)

Commentakshari - 'S'

Read this tag in MV's blog and had to write my own post, being the 6th one to post a comment on his. Since I was the 6th one, I had to take the first letter of the 6th word in my comment and post as a commentakshari. Ha..ha...ha...But I had only 5 words...Very clever me :)) So, I took my own favorite letter 'S' and started writing about the 10 words that starts with 'S'. Here I go...

Snakes:
Snakes and dreams go hand in hand in my case. Almost 80% of the dreams that I had was about Snakes. For no reason and without any intention, I end up having dreams about Snakes. And everytime I say this to my mom, I wished it not to happen again. I hate dreams about Snakes :(

Snow:
The white carpet whose beautiful flow that I love to watch it on an early morning with a hot cup of Elaichai tea :)

SSS:
Srinath, Saqlain Mushtaq and Shaun Pollock - My top 3 favorites of the cricketing arena. Although these 3 are not in the field as bowlers now, this tag reminded me of them. I had posters of all the three during those days and I used to get these player cards that come with some chewing gum brand. I still have those cards and posters that I saved in my diary :)

Sweets:
When people cannot even eat half of a milk sweet or a bowl of halwa, I can eat atleast thrice that amount on a single serve. I have a sweet tooth, u know? ;)

Slambooks:
I was introduced to this term when I was in my 12th grade. Everytime you see someone in the class, you can see them with a slambook in their hands and with an asaduvazhium smile requesting someone to write. Slambooks, not my choice!

Shawshank Redemption:
I believe this one particualr movie can change one's life. I love this movie for teaching about various lessons in life and in particular 'HOPE'. I would recommend everyone to watch this movie.

Strength:
People who fails intermittently always have a great power of inner strength. This strength gives them the taste of SUCCESS when they attain it and I believe in it!

Sleep:
It's one's own property which no one can surrennder. In addition to that, if you can sleep within seconds without waiting for the sleep to come to you, whenever you fall into the bed to sleep, how would that be? A boon indeed!

Sharing:
Sharing in whatever sense feels good. Ideas, feelings, thoughts - If you have a person that you can share anything with, that's the beauty of a relationship. Isn't it?

Sure:
The word that I often use nowadays and hence I am ending the tag with this - Sure :)

Now, the rules to continue this tag: (Took from the original tag of MV's)
It is your turn. If you would like to play “Commentakshari” you can pick the starting letter of the word from your comment number. For example, if you are the 3rd commentator, you can pick the first letter of the 3rd word in your comment. If you do not have a blog, you can write your words in the comments section. If you do not like to play “Commentakshari”, you can comment on my post but you are free to reject it and move on.

Sergey writes...

Apart from the celebrities like Big B and Abhishek B starting their personal blogs, here is another one - Sergey Brin who started his blog last week.
http://too.blogspot.com/

On 'I Peek @'

Not only I peek @ these blogs, but also I love reading them. Being an avid reader of these blogs, I just want to cite about these people/their blogs(writing) here.

Dan Lyon's - Peak of Parody. That's what I can say if I have to, in one line
Paddu's - A Tech geek who can talk about anything
Murali's - Man with a gifted voice
Jo's - Variety is his equipment
Saranya's - Simplicity is her genre
Hawkeye's - Realistic and his writing nature can make stomach splits ;)
Chinmayi's - Straight from the heart..no boundaries
Nilaraseegan's - His name has it...who can make beautiful kavidhaigal
MV's - Hailing from the same place of mine, this man has got clarity in his thoughts
Ram's - Keys in his hands and dhwani to your years...
PR's - Passionate to be different and mostly resides in his fictional world
Seth's - Lexicon of Marketing..Gives new dimensions to the Biz world
GK's - An Entrepreneur and a guru to most of the aspiring Entrepreneurs

If I had to choose my top 3 out of it, I would go for these...
1. MV's - "Clarity is Power" and there he is!!!
2. Chinmayi's - "Being what you are!" defines this lady
3. Murali's - Sometimes he sounds like KJY and sometimes like SPB but his voice says it all...

Way to go and keep blogging!