Pass It On. And Don't Return.

The only time I won any thing substantial was when I was in class V.

I was told to go to the Principal's office one morning. Wearing the pristine white uniform and shaking in my black polished shoes, I was desperately trying to keep my heart beat down. She called me in, handed over an envelope and said,"Congratulations...keep up the good work". The envelope contained Rs 25. I was thrilled. But unfortunately I could not keep up the good work. Unless you count the lascivious glances and few comments like ' o meri chchamak chchallo' as winning, my entire student life was completely non-happening in terms of winning.

I did win my husband in the biggest gamble called 'arranged marriage' though. My best friend felt it was my "pichchle janmon ke punya'' and his " saat janmon ke total paap" that made me hit this jackpot. ( With a friend like this do I really need an enemy?) But hey, a win is a win, right?

Some of you might say that giving birth to 2 precious girls, who are reasonably intelligent and talented, as winning too. But let me tell you friends that I worked damn hard to produce these 2.

And since both of them are still in their formative stages, I am still to figure out whether they are my assets or liabilities. Right now the scale is tilting slightly towards the liability side.

Even after 17 years, I am yet to win my mom-in-law's whole hearted approval. She still remembers and sighs over a letter from another girl's parents. The letter got lost in transit. The Indian postal department had gone on a flash strike and the letter was never delivered. Meanwhile my aggressive and pushy parents pounced upon the hapless boy and the rest is history. Sigh. Such a tragic tale.

So as I was saying, I have a pretty pathetic record when it comes to wins. Therefore I was jolted out of my complacent self when I won not one but two awards recently. The first one was from eye-in-sty-in, who has since then metamorphosed into Spike. My only fault was leaving some inane, silly comments on his posts. He decided to punish me by giving me this award. I am calling it a punishment because like Amir Khan, I had decided not to accept awards, (unless it is from the President of India, a la Amir.) But this smart chap threatened to boycott my blog (like the media) if I did not pick this one up. So here I am Spike, but let it be known that I am doing it under duress. Moreover the award is not even in English. Still, see it prominently and proudly being displayed here. Happy? I still feel your sometimes goofy, sometimes intelligent comments are better than any award that you can ever give me. But thank you very much.

I am passing on this award to the bloggers who I really enjoy reading.

Sakshi, who has an amazing sense of humour and makes even the simple sound extra-ordinary.

SJ, because she is one whacky person and I always wait for her next post. ( Hope this one will bring you out of your self-imposed exile)

Kavi, because his lyrical writing touches my heart every single time.

Sucharita, who is one of my favourite writers in the blogosphere and she is really, really good.

The second award came from Meira, another bindaas writer. Her writing has a carefree, effervescent quality that I like. And I was honoured when she gave this to me.

This award I thought of passing on to the first four people who comment on my post. After all this is supposed to be an award for those who inspire me and nobody inspires me more than the people who comment on my posts. But then I thought it would be grossly unfair to the four commentators in the middle or the last four commentators. Hence I am giving this award to

Sujata ( you can call it nepotism, but it was she who inspired me to blog in the first place)

Nona, this amazing man is a prolific writer and inspires me to manage my time.

Suman, because he writes on very unusual subjects and it is always a pleasure to read him.

ZB, because he has inspired me to write quite a few posts in the past.

And finally to Jyothi, because a working mom of two fast growing children can truly be inspiring.

Thank you Meira, for this beautiful award.

So please pick up your awards friends and and pass them on to those deserving bloggers who inspire you to write better.

This award giving ceremony reminds me of a game I used to play in my school. I used to sit on the last bench, hit the head of the girl in front really hard and say, "Pass it on and don't return."

One by one the girls would knock the heads of the girls sitting in front till the knock reached the girl sitting in the front row. She would sit quietly, swallowing her anger and I would snicker, sitting at the back.

So now you know why I never won anything substantial in school!