Bhai at-tag-ed by two

I have been tagged by two bewdas of the bar!

Tag #1
This tag by Stupidosaur (his exact words were "I tag Sayesha - Who will probably write four lines from the double edition of the weekend paper, which will definitely have more than 123 pages.") made me hurl my hypothetical rolled-up weekend edition at him with great force over the bent-in-terror heads of all the other bewdas, but it kinda unrolled midway and did not hit him as hard as I'd intended. But then I thought to myself - let's honour the tag. After all, the poor guy was also ragged by the tag that someone sent his way. The tag may be pointless, but then think about it - how many 'pointful' things do we bloggers do anyway? Sheesh!

This is the tag:
1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people, and acknowledge the person who tagged you.

Here goes:

"In spite of this brave statement, when Arjuna blew on his conch, he began to shake with fear and collapsed on the floor of the carriage. He was unable to hold the reins because his hands trembled. Arjuna explained, "When my conch is blown, its sound always makes my enemies tremble, but you are no enemy, be calm..."

Yep, you guessed it. I'm currently reading The Mahabharata by R. K. Narayan so it's the nearest book. And I just realised that by themselves, the above sentences make it seem like Arjuna freaked out at the sound of himself blowing the conch. But the person shaking with fear was actually the vain Prince Uttara who'd offered to be Arjuna's charioteer.

Tag #2
Now this one by Blue Bike states that you have to list down 10 of your secrets. There are two reasons why I can't do that. The first is that if I reveal them, they won't be secrets anymore. Secondly, anything that would be close to fitting the bill is already listed in this post. So I have decided it to modify the tag. A little bit.

Okay fine, a lot.

I'll list all right. But not secrets, but little-known facts. Not about me, but about this blog. Some of which may be known, but only to the mehfil ke puraane bewdas. And because my favourite number is 13, I've put down 13 facts instead of 10. (And yes, I'm totally aware that I have steered far far away from the original tag.)

Here goes:

• I started this blog not because I had a lot of thoughts, but because everyone else around me seemed to have one and I felt left out damnit! :/
  
  
• My initial projection of this blog's lifespan was one month. It's been 3.5 years and counting. Phew!
  
  
• For the longest time I did not know what the name 'Sayesha' meant. I asked a friend who knows more Urdu than me and he said it means 'princess of hearts'. Oooh. I like! :D Mogambo khush hua!
  
  
• This blog started off with Blogger's standard green template and was known as 'Sayesha's World' for almost a year. It turned into a bar only after this post, though I don't call this bar Sayeshaz any more (the z at the end is actually quite annoying, like the one in lolz and frenz). A few months ago, Viv helped me create the new blue look and new title. The picture was taken in February 2007 during our road trip in New Zealand.
  
  
• There was a time when I used to write a new post every single day. Are my thoughts getting fewer and fewer?
  
  
• There are two people whom I hang out with almost every weekend. I met them through my blog.
  
  
• Though I've made many friends through my blog, I've also already had fallouts with some of them without ever meeting them. I guess I expected too much (my mistake, I admit) and I trusted too much (again, my mistake). I've since gotten wiser and also a bit cynical about blog friendships. I'm happy about the wiser bit, not so much about the cynical bit. :/
  
  
• This blog is despised by some and I've had some comments from MACs (mean anonymous commentators), but I'm glad that I've never ever posted any mean anonymous comment on anyone's blog even when they really pissed me off.
  
  
• I've come close to shutting down my blog forever only once. In hindsight, that was the worst idea ever.
  
  
• My in-laws read my blog. Quite religiously at that. Sometimes they comment and then I don't know how I should address them when I reply to their comments. :P
  
  
• My parents know I have a blog, but they don't have a computer at home (Mom thinks it will explode and she wouldn't know what to do) so they can't read it. Once in a while, I copy-paste my posts and send it to Dad's work email id like a Friday Forward.
  

• My many alter-egos on this blog are actually all inter-connected. You see, Sayesha Smitten Showbiz Kitten (modelled after a character in the Britcom Goodness Gracious Me) writes for a newsletter which is edited by Sayesha the editor and circulated in a bar that belongs to her royal Bhai-ness The Bhai. The newsletter is called Akh-bar (the hyphen is important).
  
  
• I've often wondered if blogging about something good will jinx it. In the end, I took the popular 'To-hell-with-it' approach and decided that I should just blog without thinking too much.

I tag anyone who fulfils all of the following criteria:

1. Has a blog.
2. Pretends it does not exist and hence neglects it completely.
3. Hasn't written a new post in the last three months.