Many thanks to my friends and fellow bloggers Neera , asaaan and Dipali for giving me this award. I entered the world of blogging sometime last year on a whim, starting off with my travelblog, as I thought that would be a great way of recalling holidays especially years later when the photos might not bring back details of all the fun moments we enjoyed. Then I started off my opinions blog and a food blog and then this one on life with kids.

Though I love writing, I'm terrible with keeping diaries, and I have beautifully designed babybooks for my kids which are sadly blank so I figured something that makes it convenient for me - just type and it's all done - may be the easy way out. It was more an outlet for me and a way to preserve memories, both for myself and for my kids - after I had them, I discovered how important it is for moms to remember all the details about their kids. I'd pester my mom for details on everything about me and my sister - the pregnancy, what we did at each month, when we learned x, y or z and get frustrated when she couldn't remember. But as Chubbocks grew up, I realised for myself how easy it is to forget - each phase is so all-consuming that the previous stages are forgotten or recalled only if you've been lucky or smart with a camera. When I saw newborn kids after Chubbocks was a year old, I used to think they were super-tiny and that Chubbocks had been much larger when born, only to realise later that he'd weighed less so had probably been as tiny or even tinier! So, to cut a long story short, this blog was really to ensure my kids didn't cuss me out when they had kids of their own years later!

I didn't realise at the time how compulsive blogging could become or that it would ever lead to anything further. But after a wonderful online shower organised by Tharini earlier in the year, I've discovered a whole community of online friends who're always there with a willing ear (eye?) to rant to, to answer all kinds of questions or just to lend a supportive shoulder. And many of them have turned into offline friends as well. I'd like to say a big thanks to blogger as well for being so easy to adopt! And to pass on this award to some bloggers I've enjoyed in the last year, in no particular order:
Sujatha whose blog I love and whom I'd love to return to the world of blogging;
Dotthoughts who has a spirited son like mine and who's always thought-provoking;
Asha who blogs about food and brings an enormous enthusiasm for each and every festival, event or meal that she prepares for her family;
Boo who always has a funny take on what happens;
Beth who's fallen in love with Bollywood and whose reviews are always interesting - funny, thought-provoking or really incisive;
Aspi, whose wicked reviews of India's reality shows and movies are hilariously rib-tickling ;
Noon whose posts are so wonderfully heart-warming.
Here's looking forward to disovering more wonderful blogs and bloggers over the next year!

Rules:
This award is for blogs whose content and/or design are brilliant as well as creative.
The purpose of the prize is to promote as many blogs as possible in the blogosphere.
1. When you receive the prize you must write a post showing it, together with the name of who has given it to you, and link them back
2. Choose a minimum of 7 blogs (or even more) that you find brilliant in their content or design.
3. Show their names and links and leave them a comment informing they were prized with ‘Brilliant Weblog’
4. Show a picture of those who awarded you and those you give the prize (optional).
5. And then we pass it on!