THINK ABOUT IT

Your blog writer has been on break. Actually not quite. First, it was an assignment then a driving trip that kept me on the road to Malaysia. Wonderful weekends both - the first one at Genting with the Bollywood gliteratti where I tested our Hi-Def camera, Carl Zeiss lens and the works to very little effect. The second one with family at the charming Malacca. It was back to handhelds, with optimal results on and off the dust tracks at the A'Famosa resort, where Dhruv imagined he was a Lewis Hamilton. Couldn't blame him, Sepang was only a couple of hundred miles away. And the Vroom, Vroom of the Malaysian Grand Prix was heard almost everywhere.


My blogging breaks though haven't stopped thebookaholic aka Bibliobibuli aka Sharon Bakar from handing me a Thinking Blogger Award. I'm not entirely sure if I'm truly deserving of the honour, but I am deeply touched by it. Coming as it does from Sharon, with whom, I've shared some wonderful moments at the Ubud Writers Festival and then through our mail exchanges, this means the world to me. If Sharon tells me, this is the author to watch out for, I'll go all out to do what she asks me to. She recently recommended Tan Twan Eng of 'The Gift of Rain' fame and the interview with him turned out to be as good as it gets. Her passion about all things literary is truly worthy of emulation. She doesn't suffer from what Kunal Basu profoundly summed up as the Dalda Syndrome. Knowledge and information for Sharon, are all about sharing. Just head to her blog and see how many fresh voices are heralded. That, I am sure, you will all admit, is in itself is a big thing.

Now for the work Sharon has set out for me. What I need to do is pick 5 of my own 'Thinking Blogs' - no mean job this. I know some good blogs will be missed, but I really have no problem picking these as my top 5:

1) Jabberwock leads my list. I love the way journalist Jai Arjun Singh straddles between worlds. Authors, books, cricket, movies, music, people. You only have to read his author interviews to get the sense of place and characters in some of your memorable reads. Beyond that two of his recent posts showed what it takes to stay grounded in a world that is being increasingly marked with a sense of loss. His tribute to Shakti Bhatt and Business Standard photographer Rekha make this blogger with a heart stand out heads above the rest.

2) Indi.Ca - this is a blog I discovered after I came back from the Galle Literary Festival. Pity I didn't bump into Indi Samarajiva maybe I did - there were just so many people in those packed days. He does an immensely fine blog, which I visit often enough to make sense of what the media is telling us about Sri Lanka. Read his piece on Military Theatre and the attack on Sri Lanka's 'airport' to decide for yourself. Apart from the written word, there are some great pictures that make this special.

3) Speaking of pictures... who needs text when you have pictures like these? Had read 'Sri Lanka Style' before I headed to Galle. While I got to exchange a couple of quick hellos with the writer Channa Daswatte, never got around to meeting photographer Dominic Sansoni. Met his lovely wife Nazreen a couple of times over breakfast at The Lighthouse and discovered Dominic's blog through hers. A picture story like never before.

4) Making it to the fourth spot on my list is Lotusreads who does great stuff on her blog. I love the lay-out, the easy to comprehend sentences, the breezy style and the fact that she tells us when she's on break. Lessons I should be learning. Superb links too. You'll never need to look elsewhere.

5) Shekhar Kapur, yes, the filmmaker has a brilliant blog too. You read, you decide.

Well, Congratulations All! You have won a Thinking Blogger Award:

The rules are quite simple.

Should you choose to participate, please make sure you pass this list of rules to the blogs you are tagging.

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,
3. Optional: Proudly display the 'Thinking Blogger Award' with a link to the post that you wrote.

Please, remember to tag blogs with real merits, i.e. relative content, and above all - blogs that really get you thinking!

There are several other blogs that I enjoy and they deserve a mention too - Zafar Anjum's Dreamink, Amit Varma's India Uncut, Chandrahas Chaudhary's The Middle Stage , Miss Snark , wanderer, day dreamer and fellow Sagittarian's blog Szerelem, Szerelem and something I started reading recently - author Amitava Kumar's blog. Thanks for the blogs all.