I’ve finally taken up a tag – a task I consider tedious, boring, and at the same time, quite difficult. But I’ve always enjoyed others’ tags. *winks*

Guria is a prolific writer, whose write-ups, especially stories, have often influenced me. When it comes to Story telling I firmly believe that most of the times, “how” you tell is more important than “what” it is about. And she demonstrates this every time she writes a story, with her brilliant narrative skills. One of the very few people in blogosphere who sticks to the golden rule of story telling: “Show. Don’t tell”. Mind you, it’s not easy. But she does it with finesse, and makes it look so easy.

When she tagged me recently, my first reaction was, “Heck, no!” But when some curses were thrown in, I decided to give it a go.

Well, this is all about letting you know my seven “deadly” secrets (if at all they are considered secrets). I’m an open book, darlings, and that makes this all the more difficult. Either ways, read on.

1. Unsuccessfully learnt Classical Music (Carnatic flute) for seven years. Music, I believe, is the MOST difficult art among all arts, and I couldn’t get a grip on it. Though I’ve discontinued now, and don’t play my flute anymore, I still enjoy listening to classical music, and don’t usually miss important concerts. On the contrary, I enjoy many other forms of music, which includes rap too. Thus, most of my mornings begin with Eminem. Some time later it’s switched to Classical (either Carnatic or Hindustani), followed by Loreena McKennitt (my latest obsession) or some Hindi or Kannada film songs. Also have an eclectic collection of OSTs of Hollywood movies. Classical to Rap to OSTs, you are wondering and rolling eyes? Well, that’s I. Can’t help it. Bottom line: When it comes to music, it’s a mixed bag.

2. A bit short-tempered, and quite impulsive by nature. But my impulsive nature is limited to things like picking up my phone and calling a friend out of the blue, irrespective of time; planning to go to a movie or a restaurant or on a short trip, etc. A few hooligan friends do like this nature of mine, but some “disciplined” ones get really irritated.

3. Got aaaalmost slapped by a girl recently. The innocent me was innocently having Cane Juice in a cane juice parlour, and a dental/medical babe came and stood beside me, and ordered her drink. I somehow felt that I’d seen her somewhere. So instead of asking her directly, I tried to read the name written on her nameplate (she was wearing an apron). It was written in some bloody, unreadable font (I wonder what’s with girls and fonts) and was taking considerable amount of time to catch a glimpse of it. When I was done and looked up, grinning from ear to ear, she was staring at me as if she were going to kill me. Well, needless to say, she was wearing her nameplate where it’s supposed to be worn, and misunderstood me. What happened next? Yeah, you guessed it right. I "escape"d, and participated in Blog-a-ton 10.

Now that the questions of escaping and girls have come up, lemme tell you one more thing; when I was in school, I was once chased by a girl all over the campus, along with her stupid and silly friends – to tie me rakhi. I had then tried to “escape” and hidden myself in kindergarten. Her rakhi never touched my hand of course. She later agreed that it was vaaaaary silly and stupid of her. (And I’m sure the girl in question is laughing her guts out now) ;)

4. An extrovert. Always need a few extra words to make my point. (You might have already realized this after reading my “short” stories) But what you might not know is that I am a very good listener too. And if the person is narrating an incident or a story, I totally become dumb; as I don’t want to break his/her flow (who knows, there might be a short story hidden, waiting for me to pen). :D

5. I don’t associate masculinity with silly attributes like colour, not crying, being crazy about bikes, not liking love stories, etc. I believe it’s all in the head, and also the so-called media morons and some immature dudes and chicks with additude (not attitude) are responsible for making people believe in this mumbo-jumbo. Masculinity for me is all about acceptance - accepting your true self without worrying about what others might think about you.

6. Not crazy about cell-phones. Any model with basic functions will do perfectly OK. Now that it has come to the subject of phones; I really feel bad when I don’t get a reply for my message or phone call (when not picked up). It’s courtesy to acknowledge (at least later when one becomes free), and it’s very important to me.

7. The above also is associated with blogging too. I really hate it when my comments (on others’ blogs) are not acknowledged. I believe being read itself is a huge compliment, let alone comments, which should be respected and replied. Again, courtesy is the word.

Now, all those who are commenting are tagged. After all why should only I be the sufferer?!