Sunshine Blogger Awards

Humbled by my nominations

Shalini

Jul 29, 2025

The Sunshine Blogger Award Rules:

-Display the Award’s official logo somewhere on your blog.

-Thank the person who nominated you.

-Provide a link to your nominator’s blog.

-Answer your nominator’s questions.

-Nominate up to 11 bloggers.

Hello subscribers/Followers/Substack readers.

I am sorry for this late response, but I was busy figuring out if I wanted to apply for college in the last one week. And I also wanted to wait to see if anybody else was going to nominate me as two people had already nominated me on the same first day. Honestly, it has been a humbling experience as I never believed my posts deserved notice or recommendations, let alone nominations like this one. Thank you to all the ones who found me worthy enough to nominate. Here they are in the order in which I was nominated, God bless their souls:

1. Rose Alice White from Stories Sown with Hope | Substack

2. Sage Justice from Sage Words | Sage Justice | Substack

3. TaN from TaN | Substack

4. Dr. Mohammad timory from Dr. Mohammad timory | Substack

5. Michelle R Teel from Michelle R Teel | Substack

My Nominators' Q&A's (My nominations can choose to answer as many as you’d like):

1. Do you ever narrate your life like it’s a novel, or are you mentally stable?

I narrate my life in poems, I can't say for sure it's my own narration, because when I read them again after posting, it feels like they are from somebody else. I merely capture and post them. Most of my posts are written in the middle of the night when I am woken up with a topic. I sit up to write and words flow out through me. If I obediently sit up to write, that is. If I don't, I usually forget the words or even the topic in the morning. Sometimes I am too sleepy, so I don’t even pay attention to the dictation, just write them as if somebody in school is dictating and I am taking notes without listening. It happened even this morning. I was too sleepy to complete it and went back to sleep midway impatiently. But i remembered what i was going to write and so I continued it late in the afternoon and words flowed out again through me. Who is dictating? I have no answer to that! So, am i mentally stable? I think so! Albeit, perhaps! 😁

2. What’s your villain origin story?

November 2024 elections. It changed my life. I have to write a blog about it. I probably did a few times already as well. But I can't get over it. It was a turning point in my life. It changed my attitude, my outlook, took away my fear of people and replaced it with anger. Gave me freedom, gave me hope, made me a teenager all over again. The experience was precious. I'd do anything to get it back once more. Because it finally made my whole life worth living and my whole existence finally seemed to have meaning.

3. What’s the weirdest thing you’ve Googled at 2am for “research”?

Sometimes I google the definition of certain words that come to me as I am writing to make sure they align with my writing, to make sure they mean what I think they mean and they usually do but sometimes they have been the opposite of what I had believed them to be, so in essence that tells me that the person dictating to me in the middle of the night when i wake up to write, the person waking me up with words and topics is still me, residing somewhere inside my brain as well. 🤷🏻‍♀️

4. How do you balance writing with being a human being? Or… do you just not?

I believe that the whole point of my existence up until this point has been to lead me here right now. So, writing is important. I feel like my words are going to be framed at some point even though I am just a nobody until now, made into a book or something and treated as important concepts to be taught in school settings and everywhere else where the importance of good living will be taught to children. So, I use every opportunity to write whatever comes to me and post them when appropriate. Being a homemaker certainly helps.

5. If a stranger read your drafts, what would they assume about your mental health?

I've had many strangers like my posts, so I am assuming, they don't misunderstand my mental health. Though some of my notes have not been liked at all and that tells me that perhaps I am too advanced for the current culture. 🤷🏻‍♀️

6. What’s your 'I swear I’m normal' writing habit that proves you are, in fact, not?

I write. That's the only normal in my writing habit. Everything else, like my poems, my thoughts, my delivery, my beginning and ending are different from the traditional script. I believe people are intelligent enough to capture the underlying meaning without having to explicitly spell it out or explain in detail with plenty of paragraphs. I like to keep my writing concise. I have discovered that this is the way my mind likes to narrate, it flows without explaining, I flow with it like a river that doesn’t know its destination but just flows believing it has a destination, and I usually arrive at it in the end and that’s when it all makes sense even to me most of the time. 🤷🏻‍♀️

7. What's the color of your toothbrush?

White and blue, my favorites

8. When you were a child, how did you play? Were you lost in pretend worlds, muddy adventures, wild games of chase, or team sports beneath the sun?

When I was a child, I enjoyed pretend play, like a homemaker doing all the chores. Perhaps thats why I settled to be a homemaker when the time came and I didn’t have family to support me and my children. But now its time to step it up and be a voice for the world. And I hope to do that with my existence.

9. If you came across your favorite magical creature in real life, what would it be, and what would you do?

I always wanted to see or meet an angel with wings and glowing light in the night. If I did get such an encounter, I would shout it out to the rest of the world until I can’t shout anymore.

10. Best read of this year so far.

I don't read books anymore. Not fully at least. But I have listened to Man's Search for meaning by Victor Frankl and Plato's Apology by Plato. I also started reading The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle and also, Whole Brain Living by Jill Bolte Taylor which I found very interesting. I also read and restack a million articles on substack. I have learnt much from them all, especially learning from Buddhism, Stoicism and Taoism for the first time in the recent month. I am loving it here.

11. Not really a question but give a heartfelt compliment to someone on Substack.

I have to thank so many authors on Substack. I am especially grateful for Coach Paulina, Jenny Lynn, Liz, Lisha Simmonds, Fatima Mehdi, Moore Maguire, Monica Hebert, Mindshift Musings, IJ Makan, Alberto Garcia, Daniel Padan, Avalon, Red Shanthi, Matt Pincott, Alex Jenkin, quidestruetmundum, Nick Hashemi, Melanie Ann Martin, Dr. Jason Yuan, Meditate with Ram Dass, Nia Quinn, Sandy Shaller, The Urban Monk, Leon Macfayden, Cody Taymore, Bruce Paullin, Paulina Pinsky, Gary Coulton, Margo Helman. I specifically didn’t mention some people in this list simply because they either nominated me or have been nominated by me (just to reduce redundancy). I value every one of them and their friendships I have gotten through Substack. What a wealth!

12. What do you write about?

I write about everything that impacts me on a day-to-day basis. And what I learn from it.

13. Why?

I write so everybody reading my posts can also learn from my learning.

14. What's something you believe deeply, even if it's unpopular?

Everybody is entitled to their own life; however, they want to live it. Nobody gets to make decisions on anybody's behalf. No matter what that looks like even if it doesn’t adhere to cultural norms dictated by the society. Everybody's life is different. No one has walked in the path of another man, so, what gives him the privilege to decide what is best for another person? I can’t get over that!

15. What part of your life shapes your writing the most?

My romantic life does, but I don't post any of it on Substack. If I did, I would lose a lot of subscribers due to the sheer volume of posts and notes I would write and also, I doubt many in this world are ready to hear my thoughts. They are advanced at least by 10 years from now.

16. What do you long for right now?

I long for the great awakening of this world. And it’s already happening. I am privileged to witness and be a part of it.

17. When do you feel most alive?

When my thoughts are acknowledged and liked. It means I am not the only one who thinks like this, and people appreciate my thoughts and that’s the best feeling there is.

18. What's a truth you're still learning to live with?

Not everybody thinks like me. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Some people are still living in their tiny bubbles and don’t want to come out to touch and the feel the real world for what it is

19. What do you want to be remembered for?

That I tried to stir up the nation and the world through my words

20. Who are you when you're not creating or working?

I am a sleep addict. I love to recoup. I also love to sit, walk or drive in silence and listen to God talk to me through nature, birds, animals, clouds, moon, whatever he chooses to use. I also love to meditate using Vipassana meditation that I was recently introduced to, thanks to Nick Hashemi

21. What was your favorite hobby as a child?

I loved to engage in intellectual discussion with my best friend. We used to clog the home phone for hours together at a stretch right after school

22. What is your favorite hobby now?

Daydream

23. Where is the most exotic place you've ever traveled to?

Andaman Islands

24. Where is a place you hope to travel to?

Lakshadweep which is also in India, where the beaches are beautiful as well

25. If you could have a conversation with anyone, alive or dead, who would it be?

My dad, who passed away 3 years ago

26. Who is your favorite musician?

Sonu Nigam (Indian singer), I loved his voice growing up

27. Who is your favorite writer?

Nasim Nicholas Taleb (The Black Swan)

28. What is your favorite movie?

Anjali (It’s a Tamil movie and I named my daughter after the lead actress who played the role of a special child and was so adorable)

29. Where do you get your pictures?

Unsplash most of the time

30. If you could go anywhere, a real location, or one of your own makings, where would it be? Would you prefer to be there alone, or with others?

I would love to be at home with my family, enjoy them as much as I can.

My Sunshine Blogger Award Nominations:

Here is a list of people who have impacted me with their work, and I’d like to nominate them. (There’s clearly a ton more of them as seen in question 11 above, but I can nominate only 11, so here they are in no particular order):

I enjoyed this exercise so much even though it took a lot of time. I also learnt a lot about myself through this. Thank you to my nominators for nominating me!