Awards and tags to keep the ball rolling

This is cool. This is fun. Over the last few days, my newfound blogger buddies very thoughtfully and generously shared with me a few of their awards. I was delighted to receive my first lovely blog award from Ria a while back. Recently, I received the same award from each of my lovely blogmates Vimitha, Kirthi, Reshmi, Reshmi, Zareena, Neenu and Fajeeda.

Additionally, Reshmi has shared with me these awards galore:

Last but not the least, I was happy to receive the sisterhood award from the ever lovely Thoma--thanks buddy!

What can I say except a mere--but HUGE thanks to all of you! I feel the same way about you too. You guys are adorable, you have amazing skills and I love your blogs. In the span of almost three months, you have befriended me, taken the time to comment on my posts, and encouraged me to do better. It's truly an enjoyable experience and it makes me smile!

Apparently, a mere thank you is not enough. Per rules, I have to:

1. Accept the award, post it in my blog with the name of the blogger (plus url of the blog).

2. Share 7 things about myself since I was tagged.
2. Pass it on to 15 other blogger friends, to keep the ball rolling.
3. Let the nominated blogger know about their award (leave a comment in their most recent post).

You know, when I read the part about sharing personal info, I was like “Oh man, there’s no way I’m gonna do this!". Later, when I convinced myself that this was fun and I could hop in, I decided to keep it simple. But, in an utter turnabout of my earlier feelings I'm suddenly in a mood to babble. Maybe it’s the flu. Or maybe I’m missing my social connections. Whatever. Here we go:

7 things about me:

1.    Born an Indian, I have lived most my life in the Persian Gulf: Abu-Dhabi before marriage, Qatar after marriage. Currently, I’m living in Qatar with my husband and our two lovely boys.

2.    I enjoy working a lot and I’ve been blessed to work with two of the best organizations across different industries: 5 years in oil and gas (QP) and 4 plus in higher education (Cornell). The best part of my employment was all those incredible people I met through my job. For now, I’ve taken a break from work. 

3.    I’ve schooled in different cities like AbuDhabi, Kochi, Trichur, Coimbatore, not to mention, online at Phoenix. And, cough, I’m enrolled to attend school at SF. There’s more: I’ve studied in Muslim, Christian and Hindu missionary institutions. Yeah, no kidding, missionary indeed!

4.    I’m a great dreamer and I wish to travel to many beautiful places across the globe before I die. Silly me, eh?

5.    Incidentally I’ve done cooking shows on TV and now I have my own cooking blog – both more by accident than by design! And oh, I hated seeing myself on TV!!

6.    Earlier I used take pictures of friends, family and places and upload it to my FB albums. Now, I’m taking pictures of ingredients and dishes and publishing it in my blog. Interesting, eh?

7.    As for my passions, I have plenty. I love reading and I have a good collection of novels. In fact, I’ve even toyed with the idea of opening a library in Doha. Besides reading, I love listening to music, dancing, painting, writing, photography and anything to do with creativity like fashion designing and interior decoration. Food styling and food photography is my newfound passion and I'm loving the experiments.

8.    I’ve ….  Enough. I’ve to stop doing this. It’s getting silly. I know :P

Now, for the fun part--the award ceremony J Due to technical difficulties, I'm passing on these awards to just 15 people though my initial thought was to share each category with 15 people to give it to as many as I could. I know that it takes a lot of effort to deliver a post and I truly believe that each and everyone of you deserves recognition for your time, passion and dedication.

Okay. I'm delighted to share all the awards plus the tag (oh yea!) with the following people listed in the alpha order:

Aipi

Ayeesha

Collaborative curry

Ila

Judy, Joyce and Silvia (a special note that Joyce is my ex-colleague and dear friend from Cornell)

Magpie

Nags

Nithya

Priya

Ria

Sara

Sarah

Suji

Thoma

Zareena

So, now my friends, the ball is in your court. I hope you take up the challenge, share a bit of yourselves with us and hit it off!! Cheers!