Thank you to Brenda Marie and to Roy Ackerman for awarding the Liebster to me! (displayed below) I love both their blogs and definitely thrilled that they thought I deserve this award. Thank you to UBC as well for being a wonderful support group, and introducing to so many bloggers, and some now friends.

The rules for The Liebster Award are:

• Acknowledge the blog(s) that gave it to you and display the award
• Answer the 11 questions that the blogger gives you
• Give 11 random facts about yourself
• Nominate 11 blogs and notify them of their nomination
• Give these blogs 11 questions to answer

Here are my answers to the 11 questions :

1.  What made you start blogging? – I started blogging because I love writing but you can find more details in my About Me page!
2. What do you do when you are bored? – This does not happen often but if it does, then I guess I read (which I am mostly already doing and hence not bored in the first place) or write or draw or binge-watch!!
3. What is a long term goal of yours? – Someday, be able to publish in a nationally recognized magazine or paper; someday, publish a book (for children); well, that is enough for now 🙂
4. What are your favorite  TV shows/ movies?  (not including the ones I watch and love because of my kids as well as not including any Bollywood related movies/TV shows)Movies – Some of my Hollywood favorites are Shawshank Redemption/Gone with the Wind/Arlington Road/Roman Holiday/Clueless/ Inception; TV Shows – US TV shows – The Flash/Arrow/Seinfeld/Jeopardy/Gilmore Girls
5. What are your top three favorite songs of all time? Not including Bollywood songs, a random picking of three of my favorite songs (difficult to pick just three) – ‘Maria’ from the Sound of Music (sung by the Nuns),  ‘Can’t Stop the Feeling’ Justin Timberlake, ‘All I Want is You’ from Juno
6. What is your goal for 2018? – To be healthier, wealthier, and wiser!! And I have a list of specific ways to get to that goal(s).
7. Do you have any pets? – No pets.. Had a pair of love-birds that a friend left with us when they had to move (and sadly, I was the one to note when one of them died because a cat somehow got in to our balcony on the first floor– second floor in the US); and we kept gold-fish for a few months a couple of years ago.. here is a post about what happened to them
8. What are you passionate about? – I am passionate about being fair, not wasting resources, my family, books, dancing, food….well, many things, in short.
9. Do you speak any other languages besides English? –  I can speak four languages in total (English, my mother tongue – Tamil, Hindi (which is the national language of India), and Kannada (the language of the southern Indian state of Karnataka). I can also read and write all four of them with varying degrees of expertise. And hopefully add one more (at least) in the years to come. Part of my goals this year
10. What would your ideal way to spend the weekend? – With family – doing something together; or if they are all off doing their own thing, then with a book.
11. What is your favorite season? – No favorite season really; here in California, the weather does not change overly much through the year. But I loved the monsoon growing up in India and do love to watch the cherry blossoms in our neighborhood (March)

11 Random Facts: (and 11 more in my previous Liebster award post if you want to read them!)

1. Like Roy before me, I cry at movies… and I recall my mom and brother watching me instead of the screen to see when the tears would start.. Now, it is not open season for tears, but my eyes glisten instead
2. My favorite color is sunflower-yellow. I once paired a plain yellow tshirt with a plain yellow skirt and blinded everyone around!
3. Dessert is my favorite meal of anyday.
4. The first time I used the dishwasher, I ended up using regular dish detergent; and my husband returned home to a kitchen floor of soapsuds! To be fair to myself, we did not have a dishwasher at home growing up in India…
5. This is the second time I have been nominated for the Liebster (excluding the fact that two people nominated me this time around). My first post is here (and I might have just used some of those random facts here as well).
6. I love to dance, anytime, anywhere… dancing to ‘can’t stop the feeling’ which I was belting out while we waited in the early morning hours of a pre-debate tournament for my son’s debate team on the Berkeley campus (did I succeed in embarrassing my son? totally!)
7. I love discovering new, obscure words – check out phrontistery (one of my favorite haunts online)
8. My kids find it really funny that I am a memeaholic (I am talking about memes like ABC Wednesday, while they are picturing those funny, viral cat memes or such!)
9. I was once chased by a langur across a park for what seemed like forever. He was half as big as me at least, at that time, he seemed way bigger to my maybe 8 year old self; and to be fair to the langur, I was carrying a banana and he stopped chasing me once I threw the banana at him.
10. I love solving logic puzzles. One favorite question I was asked in an interview – You are given 10 bags of coins, each containing x number of coins (let us say, 500 coins each), but one bag contains coins that are fake. You only know that the fake coins weigh one gram lesser than the real coins. You are also handed a digital kitchen scale (with just one weighing pan/not a balance). How can you find out which bag contains the fake coins with just ONE weighing?  (Let me know – You can email me the answer –  vidya@ladyinreadwrites.com . and i will post it on my blog post on Monday)
11. This is the second time I am writing a Liebster award related post. The first one was for my blogspot blog years ago.

The 11 blogs I am nominating (and adding one note here to my nominees, thanks to Lillian’s post, you all totally deserve the award, and I leave it up to you to continue the Liebster – not mandatory at all 🙂 )

1. Jeanine at The Hygge Blog, where she blogs about, well, Hygge!! Check it out to learn more..
2. Rachel at Rachel and Co, her goal setting posts totally rocked!
3. Emily at More Coffee for Mama – her About Me page brought a smile to my face
4. Lavanda at her lifestyle blog
5. Marya at Beau Traveler blogging about, of course, traveling .. useful tips and destinations..
6. Karina at Lovemade Handmade, where she blogs about her handmade projects (many sewing related ones that caught my attention due to my daughter’s interest in sewing)
7. Agnes at Bits-en-Pieces where she writes about a little bit of this and a piece of that!
8. Kate at Homebound But Hopeful – her words ‘blogging from the intersection where children’s literature and design meet’ caught my attention completely
9. Lillian at Human in Recovery, where she writes about growth and healing
10. Prerna at All She Things can be relied upon to give me tips on home decor, and style.
11. Dee Jackson at her lifestyle blog; her posts inspire:)

My questions for them (borrowed shamelessly from my past Liebster post):

1. If you could take a vacation anywhere in the world, where would it be?
2. What is your favorite food to eat?
3. What advice would you give your younger self if you could go back in time ten years?
4. What would be the first thing you’d do if you won the lottery?
5. Night owl or early bird?
6. What superpower would you like to have?
7. Your favorite way to relax?
8. eBook or the printed book or audio book or no books at all?
9. What four words would you use to describe yourself?
10. Who is the most influential person in your life?
11. Do you make resolutions? If yes, what is your top resolution for 2018?