Indibloggies - The Indian Weblog Awards | Indian Blog Awards

Indibloggies bids adieu

Debashish — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 05:53:35 +0000

They say, all good things come to an end. And the time has come for the Indibloggies to bid adieu. Yes dear readers, Indibloggies is pulling its shutters down.

It amazes me that what started as a simple backyard fun clique in 2003 survived so long and hopefully brought some happiness in the Indiblogdom. Sadly, Indibloggies (and in fact my blogging and other online activities too) were not getting the required attention in my current scheme of things. Even the 2008 edition stretched way too far. Being the procrastinator that I am, took me a while to decide, but here now, its decided.

Many still find it hard to believe that Indibloggies has been a one-man driven effort, but I think I wouldn’t have been able to pull it off without help from umpteen fellow bloggers, who extended help in running various phases of this online event. I would cherish their help, interest and encouragement. I also should thank you, dear reader, who kept a tab on this event, year after year. Your messages helped me keep the site going. Thanks you all! Cheers!

My book tells everything that the blog didn’t: Fake IPL Player

Debashish — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 02:30:01 +0000

Click here for a Hindi version of this interview

The Fake IPL Player (henceforth to be known as FIP) needs no introduction. Last year during the Indian Premier League, a blog suddenly appeared that was purportedly written by a fringe ‘anonymous’ player of one of the IPL’s most popular franchises. Giving a warts-and-all brutally irreverent fly’s eyes view of the inner workings of a doomed team and liberally peppered with salacious accounts of off-field superstars (whose actual identities were hidden behind easily-guessable monikers –a few of which like Kaan Molu and Appam Chutiya have since become part of our vocabulary) the FIP became a viral Internet phenomenon.

Who was FIP? Was he actually a player? Was it a publicity gimmick? More importantly, was this the truth? Or like everything else we are told, the ardha-satya?

The FIP became water-cooler talk in every office where cricket is discussed as people poured over screens dissecting the allusions to real players in posts. Certain players were suspected, a newspaper even broke the so-called identity of FIP and then retracted, the said franchise came up with an official statement on their blog, and as the FIP’s posts sounded realistically accurate, confusion became more confounded. The world waited eagerly till the end of the tournament, not just because it was overtly long but because FIP promised to reveal his identity only then.

He did. Well not really. In a video which showed his shadow, the FIP confessed to not being a player. Then who was he? Just a Indian cricket fan, but not an ordinary one. One who during “the faceless journey of life”, happened “to get intimately exposed to cricket. From the Kings of Bollywood to the pimps of cricket and vice-versa”, an experience that converted him into “an insider, the the fly on the wall, the ghost in the darkness.”

He left with a promise.

Well the FIP is back to make history. With his book ‘Gamechangers’ being brought out by Harper Collins. And to tell you more is the man himself in his first ever interview. In conversation with the winner of the “Indiblog of the Year” award winner Arnab Ray.

In case you are wondering, this interview is not due to the fact that both FIP & Arnab share the publisher (Arnab’s book ‘May I Hebb Your Attention Pliss‘, published by Harper Collins would be out in March 2010). It is normally the tradition that the winner of the top laurels, “Indiblog of the Year” award, is interviewed at Indibloggies. However we felt that since he had been interviewed after winning the same award before it would be better that we did an interview of someone else. And FIP, the winner for 2008 Indibloggies Sports Blog of the Year, was the obvious choice.

Enough talk. Silence. Here he is. The Fake IPL Player. For the first time since he stopped blogging.

Arnab: What led you to start the FIP blog? Was it something that you had wanted to do for long or was it something you thought of one fine day on an impulse?
FIP: The blog itself was a spur of the moment thing. What happened was, over the years, I had collected a bagful of juicy stories which I sometimes shared with my close friends. For obvious reasons, they loved them. One evening, a few days before I left for South Africa, we were sitting around, drinking beer, me and three other friends, when one of them suggested that I put the stuff out on a blog so they can enjoy the stories in real time. I said cool. It was supposed to be a dirty little black book between just the four of us. I never thought of making it ‘Private’ probably because I never expected anybody to find out about it.

But, I do remember thinking about how to make it more interesting than just a discussion board. I thought about Fake Steve Jobs and ‘War for news’. And, coincidentally, I watched the movie ‘Wag the dog’ on the flight to Jo’burg. The Fake IPL Player persona was, in some ways, influenced by all three.

Arnab: People start blogs and struggle to get noticed. How did you manage to create a readership so quick? More specifically, how did an initial set of people even come to know that there was this delightfully “evil” blog called the FIP?

FIP: To be honest, I have no frickin’ clue how it got out. For the first few days, it was just the four of us having fun on the blog. Then, one fine day I woke up to see 5 or 6 guys not known to me who had signed up as followers. And several others who had started commenting on the blog. I asked my friends if they had talked about it to anyone and they all said ‘No’. I have a feeling though that at least one of them would have told somebody. [At the time I felt differently about it, but now I am not complaining ]

By the end of the day, the Follower count had reached double figures. I was a bit worried then. I texted the most sensible guy in our group and asked him if I should continue. His response was ‘Lage Raho Munnabhai’. So I continued. A couple of days later, Cricinfo put it on their home page. I remember I was on my way to Kingsmead for the KKR Vs King’s XI game when my friend messaged me saying that the blog was on Cricinfo home page. By the time I returned to my hotel, the Follower count was 150. Eventually, it reached almost 9000. I can’t stop laughing every time I remember how scared I was when it had reached 15.

Cricinfo got to know about it very early. My guess is that either they chanced upon it accidentally or one of the earliest finders may have posted it on their Facebook wall or something. I don’t know. But, I think they were amongst the first to know. They may have monitored it for a couple of days to confirm whether the stuff being written was true or not. Once they were satisfied, they probably put it up. After that, it just took off.

Arnab: Was it all a work of fiction or was it what film-makers call “based on facts”? If it was, did you have a source inside the team or inside the press corps?

FIP: I stand by the disclaimer on the blog, “All characters in the blog are fictitious. Any resemblance to any person, living or dead, is purely coincidental and unintentional.”

Arnab: Were you ever bothered about the ethics behind maintaining the ruse of being an actual IPL player (I am going by the video you put up where you talked about merely being an avid cricket lover), which if taken seriously might lead to witch-hunts inside the team and ultimately to innocent players being put under a cloud? Or did you consider the use of the word “Fake” in “Fake IPL Player” enough of a disclaimer, even though the principal appeal of the blog did come from people perceiving it to be real?

FIP:

I always ensured that I gave enough clues that would tell the management who I could or could not be.

I always ensured that I gave enough clues that would tell the management who I could or could not be. I must confess that during the initial days, when the blog was still private, I was a bit careless on that front. But once it got popular and I decided to continue it, I edited out some of the earlier indiscretions and made sure I wrote stuff that wouldn’t put any particular player under the scanner. There certainly was a witch-hunt on and I followed it closely, but I was sure that no innocent player would pay a price for the blog. I trusted the team management with at least a quarter of a brain not to do something that stupid.

I was concerned when Aakash and Bangar were sent back. I stopped blogging for a couple of days until I got a confirmation from none other than Aakash himself that it wasn’t because of the blog.

To correct your question just a wee bit, while I have always been an avid cricket follower, over the last ten years or so I have had opportunities to be a little more than ‘merely an avid cricket follower’ and I think something to that effect was mentioned in the video post as well. But, you are right, I did think that the word ‘Fake’ in the name absolved me a bit.

Arnab: Will you ever reveal your identity? If not, why?

FIP: I don’t know about ‘ever’, but at the moment I am quite happy in anonymity.

A couple of years ago, I met this fascinating man in Paris. He was extremely well read and knowledgeable, but other than that he seemed like a regular, middle aged guy with a regular job at a French Football Club. Nothing out of the ordinary. He invited me to spend a weekend at his upcountry home with his wife and three kids. When I went there I realised that his upcountry home was actually a chateaux, he was a billionaire and part-owner of the club. I asked him how and why he keeps such a low profile. His response was ‘vivre cache pour vivre heureux’, which means ‘to lead a hidden life is to lead a happy life’.

Arnab: What led you to suddenly backtrack from revealing your identity?

FIP: There was a chance that my identity would put some players I know well in a bit of a pickle. When I thought of it I didn’t feel right about putting them in an awkward situation for no fault of theirs.

Arnab: Do you read other blogs? If you do, which ones?

FIP: My favourite blog is thevigilidiot.com This guy is just hilarious. I actually watched Kurbaan after reading his review to see how mind-numbingly inane it could possibly be.

The other blog I love is the Inclusive Planet blog. Inclusive Planet is an organisation that provides services to the disabled sector and on their blog people with physical disabilities from all over the world share their experiences. The best part about it is that you hardly ever find any sympathy-seeking sob stories there. They are intelligent, evocative, well-written and inspiring stories. Personally, through this blog I have learnt a lot about a community that I understood very little about earlier. On the blog, read jbarath’s and Gidi Ahronovich’s posts.

I enjoy a couple of travel blogs. Janchipchase.com is the blog of the Nokia head of design. He captures the world with pictures and his acute ethnographic observations which others would normally miss. Then, there’s this interesting little blog of this IT sales guy from the land of Appam Chutiya who lives in Europe and blogs about his
experiences.

I like Cricinfo’s Page 2. They have some funny writers on their panel. Jamie Alter, Anand Ramachandran, Andrew Hughes, Nishi Narain, George Benoy they’re all quite good. Prem Panicker’s twitter feed is another favourite and occasionally I visit ‘Cricket with Balls’.

Arnab: Who has been your favorite Knight Rider player? Who do you think shouldn’t have been in the team?

FIP: My favourite Knight Rider? Well, there are so many. I think Ishant would be right up there because, during Season 2, he embodied the term ‘Knight Rider’ in ways that it wasn’t even supposed to be interpreted. He was the true ‘Knight Rider’. With him, it didn’t end with korbo-lorbo-jeetbo.

Chris Gayle is great company. In fact, I think, Gayle and Gibbs are the funniest cricketers in the world. Although, the funniest guy one can ever spend an evening with is David Lloyd. He should have been coach of KKR, to be honest. They would have still lost all their games, but at least they would have laughed their way to the bottom of the table.

For the whole month John Buchanan’s laptop kept him hypnotised like a nubile nymphet doing a strip tease.

Another favourite Knight Rider would be John Buchanan’s laptop. For the whole month it kept him hypnotised like a nubile nymphet doing a strip tease. Since he was mostly distracted by the raging sexual energy of his laptop, players could afford to breathe.

Who, I think, shouldn’t have been in the team? Well, don’t we all know that the fish starts stinking from its head?

Arnab: Where does FIP go from here? Will he come back this IPL season? Tell us about the book.

FIP: My book ‘The Gamechangers’, which I have been writing for the last six months, is due for release in February 2010. It tells everything that the blog didn’t or couldn’t. I am very excited about it. About the blog, well, I still don’t know how close I will be to the action in Season 3. So, it’s a little hazy on that front.

Arnab: Do you think your book will sell more due to the buzz/controversy created by the blog? Also do you anticipate any legal actions (defamation etc) being taken against you by BCCI when you reveal yourself at the launch of the book?

FIP: I don’t know about whether the book will sell more due to the blog or not, but I know for a fact that the book would never have happened if it weren’t for the blog. If it wasn’t for the blog, the folks at Harper Collins wouldn’t have thought of me as anything more than a horse’s ass.

Arnab: Any words for your fans?

FIP: To those who followed my blog and commented on it, a big Thank you. You really kept me on my toes.

During the blogging experience, I realised how harmful public adulation can be to one’s character. Words like ‘You Rock’, ‘Genius’, ‘Dude’ can make you bloat up with pride and ego. The result is almost always a crappy post that would get the same guys to prick the balloon with a pin and cut you down to size. I think the followers of the blog balanced the bouquets and brickbats very well and my sincere thanks for the same. I hope they will support my book too.

Also, 50% of the blog’s success was due to the comments. There were many people who’d come to the blog to read the comments. Some of them were very funny.

Arnab: Thank you for your time. Here is wishing you a whole DLF maximums of Citi moments of success for Gamechangers.

Click here for a Hindi version of this interview

Indibloggies 2008 Winners Announced

Debashish — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 16:51:32 +0000

Woh ghadii aa he gayii! The Indiblogosphere has given its verdict and has chosen a new set of winners from over 150 worthy contenders across 16 varied categories. The final phase of Voting at the Indibloggies 2008 event had total 4876 votes cast over a span of two weeks. The figures may be small, but being recognized as a blogger extraordinaire by your own community is no small an achievement.

“Random Thoughts Of A Demented Mind” authored by Arnab Ray has won the top laurels of the “Indiblog of the Year 2008″. His blog has won in this and the “Most Humorous Blog” category for the second consecutive time at the Indibloggies. Please join me in congratulating him and all the other winners on their triumph. With this win Arnab also makes it to the coveted “Indibloggies Hall of Fame“. Congratulations!

I thank all the participants, the Jurors and the Sponsors for their help and encouragement. Hearty congratulations to all the winners.

Following is the complete list of Winners:

Indiblog of the year 2008

Prizes won:

Award Certificate from Indibloggies
A special “Indiblogger of the year” scrapture trophy, worth Rs 15,000, designed by Arun Verma Design Studios
Books worth Rs 3000 from Hachette India
A copy of award-winning blogger Amit Varma’s book “My Friend Sancho” from Hachette India
Copy of the book “Problogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income” authored by Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett
Copy of Think Tweet Book 1, worth $19.95, by Rajesh Shetty
A surprise gift, worth Rs 155, by Pothi.com
Cash award of Rs 2,000 from Zoho
$30 from Indian Social Aggregator India Sphere
$15 in cash and a copy of the book Blog Blazers worth $17 from Chetan Bhawani’s thewwwblog

Best New Indiblog

Prizes won:

Award Certificate from Indibloggies
Book Hampers worth Rs 1000 from Hachette India
A copy of award-winning blogger Amit Varma’s book “My Friend Sancho” from Hachette India
Copy of Think Tweet Book 1, worth $19.95, by Rajesh Shetty
A surprise gift, worth Rs 155, by Pothi.com

Best Indi Microblog

Prizes won:

Award Certificate from Indibloggies
Book Hampers worth Rs 1000 from Hachette India
A copy of award-winning blogger Amit Varma’s book “My Friend Sancho” from Hachette India
Copy of Think Tweet Book 1, worth $19.95, by Rajesh Shetty

Best Humanities Indiblog

Prizes won:

Award Certificate from Indibloggies
Book Hampers worth Rs 1000 from Hachette India
A copy of award-winning blogger Amit Varma’s book “My Friend Sancho” from Hachette India
A surprise gift, worth Rs 155, by Pothi.com
Copy of the book “Problogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income” authored by Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett

Most Humorous Indiblog

Prizes won:

Award Certificate from Indibloggies
Book Hampers worth Rs 1000 from Hachette India
A copy of award-winning blogger Amit Varma’s book “My Friend Sancho” from Hachette India
A surprise gift, worth Rs 155, by Pothi.com

Best Group Indiblog

Prizes won:

Award Certificate from Indibloggies
Book Hampers worth Rs 1000 from Hachette India
A copy of award-winning blogger Amit Varma’s book “My Friend Sancho” from Hachette India
A surprise gift, worth Rs 155, by Pothi.com

Best Indi Food/Beverages blog

Prizes won:

Award Certificate from Indibloggies
Book Hampers worth Rs 1000 from Hachette India
A copy of award-winning blogger Amit Varma’s book “My Friend Sancho” from Hachette India
Copy of the book “Problogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income” authored by Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett
A surprise gift, worth Rs 155, by Pothi.com

Best Entertainment Indiblog

Prizes won:

Award Certificate from Indibloggies
Book Hampers worth Rs 1000 from Hachette India
A copy of award-winning blogger Amit Varma’s book “My Friend Sancho” from Hachette India
Copy of the book “Problogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income” authored by Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett
A surprise gift, worth Rs 155, by Pothi.com

Best Travel Indiblog

Prizes won:

Award Certificate from Indibloggies
Book Hampers worth Rs 1000 from Hachette India
A copy of award-winning blogger Amit Varma’s book “My Friend Sancho” from Hachette India
A surprise gift, worth Rs 155, by Pothi.com
A Blog-hosting package (1 domain name + 1 GB webspace + Latest WordPress) worth Rs 5500 from web1.in

Best Sports Indiblog

Prizes won:

Award Certificate from Indibloggies
Book Hampers worth Rs 1000 from Hachette India
A copy of award-winning blogger Amit Varma’s book “My Friend Sancho” from Hachette India
A surprise gift, worth Rs 155, by Pothi.com

Best Science/Technology Indiblog

Prizes won:

Award Certificate from Indibloggies
Book Hampers worth Rs 1000 from Hachette India
A copy of award-winning blogger Amit Varma’s book “My Friend Sancho” from Hachette India
A surprise gift, worth Rs 155, by Pothi.com
Cash award of Rs 2,000 from Zoho
Cash Awards of $50 from techblissonline

Best IndiPodcast

Prizes won:

Award Certificate from Indibloggies
Book Hampers worth Rs 1000 from Hachette India
A copy of award-winning blogger Amit Varma’s book “My Friend Sancho” from Hachette India

Best Business Indiblog

Prizes won:

Award Certificate from Indibloggies
Book Hampers worth Rs 1000 from Hachette India
A copy of award-winning blogger Amit Varma’s book “My Friend Sancho” from Hachette India
A surprise gift, worth Rs 155, by Pothi.com
Cash Awards of $20 from Learn QTP

Best Designed Indiblog

Prizes won:

Award Certificate from Indibloggies
Book Hampers worth Rs 1000 from Hachette India
A copy of award-winning blogger Amit Varma’s book “My Friend Sancho” from Hachette India
Cash Awards of $50 from techblissonline

Best Indi Photoblog

Prizes won:

Award Certificate from Indibloggies
Book Hampers worth Rs 1000 from Hachette India
A copy of award-winning blogger Amit Varma’s book “My Friend Sancho” from Hachette India
A copy of Complete Digital Photography, Fourth Edition (Graphics Series) by Ben Long, worth $26, from the food-blogger duo Jay & Bee of Jugalbandi

Best Personal Indiblog

Prizes won:

Award Certificate from Indibloggies
Book Hampers worth Rs 1000 from Hachette India
A copy of award-winning blogger Amit Varma’s book “My Friend Sancho” from Hachette India
A surprise gift, worth Rs 155, by Pothi.com
A Blog-hosting package (1 domain name + 1 GB webspace + Latest WordPress + 1 Professional theme worth max $25) worth Rs 6500 from web1.in

Interested in statistics? The final tally for
each category is available here.

Winners, please send an email to indibloggies at gmail dot com with subject PRIZE CLAIM 2008, stating your Indian postal address and contact details so that prizes could be sent to you in due time.

The ball is in your court!

Debashish — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 00:30:03 +0000

You nominated your favourite blogs, the Jury carefully selected and lined up the deserving contenders for the final rally. Now the ball is back in your court. We invite you to be part of the final phase, Phase-III of the Indibloggies 2008 edition, the public polls. Vote for your choicest blog/website from amongst the nominees in 16 categories, and help us decide the worthy winner.

The Voting would continue from 25 Nov 2009 to 10 Dec 2009. Remember, you would be required to provide a valid email address to be able to register your votes. Note that you can vote for as many categories as you wish to.

Click here to visit the Voting area

And the nominees are …

Debashish — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 17:40:59 +0000

After an unmentionable wait we are here with the final list of nominated blogs for the 2008 Indibloggies. Thanks again to all of you for suggesting all these wonderful blogs and to the Indibloggies Jury for carefully going through thousands of blogs and rating them. Watch out for the announcement of the final polls.

Best Indiblog of the Year

Best New Indiblog

Best IndiMicroblog

Most Humorous Indiblog

Best Humanities Indiblog

Best Group Indiblog

Best Food Indiblog

Best Entertainment Indiblog

Best Travel Indiblog

Best Sports Indiblog

Best Science Technology Indiblog

Best IndiPodcast

Best Business Indiblog

Best Designed Indiblog

Best Indi Photo blog

Best Personal Indiblog

Notes:
1. The “Best IndiBlog directory/service/clique/network” category was dropped due to insufficient number of nominations received.
2. IB-2008 edition is running late, note that the nominations happened in Feb 2009 and the Jury rating process happened in March/April 2009, since then some Blogs have either moved or are now defunct. However, since they existed at the mentioned URLs at the time of nomination/Juror rating phase we have listed the URLs we have on our records. We urge you to vote for such blogs based on your best judgment.

The Indibloggies Hall of Fame

Debashish — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 15:28:47 +0000

Having woken up from my kumbhakarni sleep I realized that I didn’t tell you guys about a new room we added at the Indibloggies. Well, it’s a Hall really (the H of the HK, you know) and we named it the “Indibloggies Hall of Fame”. Its meant to accommodate the growing tribe of people who have caused a “naak mein dum” by winning again and again at the Indbloggies (pssst…if you want to know how to win multiple times at the Indibloggies write to me in confidence with your “quote”, not the byte walla quote you silly.). So we decided finally to lock them up in this decorated “Hall of fame” (and thus ensure that they never win again, hehehe).

On a serious note, the “Indibloggies Hall of Fame” is to recognize fellow bloggers and communities who won 3 or more times at the Indibloggies. It’s not a mean fete to pull this out. It’s sad that this also means that they have to stay away from the competition in future but hey Indibloggies is about showcasing new talent. Join me in saluting the present occupants of the HOF (Guru Subramanian, Desipundit.com and Amit Varma) for their talent and gusto. By participating at Indibloggies they added gaiety and glitz to the platform. We are proud to have them as part of the prestigious “Indibloggies Hall of Fame”.

Meet the Indibloggies 2008 Jury

Debashish — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 14:53:30 +0000

Aditya Kuber, a Pune based photographer,
writer & geek. After working for various media houses he set up Media Sphere Communications in 2007 that deals in custom publishing, content delivery and design.

Akhil Tandulwadikar from Hyderabad is an MBA and makes living as the Editor of a Healthcare magazine. Interests include writing, reading books, Photography and Cricket.

Aparna Ray, a qualitative research consultant based in Kolkata. Passionate about limericks. Blogs in Bangla a Khola Janala and helps bridge the world of Bangla blogs onGlobal Voices and Desipundit.

Arzan Sam Wadia. Architect and Urban Designer, currently based in New York, but very much from Mumbai. He also publishes a popular blog Parsi Khabar.

Avinash Raghav, Regional Manager (North) at NASSCOM. He blogs at and manages the NASSCOM Emerge Forum, a 1400+ member community for the mid-sized.

Balendu Dadhich, heading leading Hindi news portal Prabhasakshi.com. He is a MVP and developer of a Hindi Word Processor ‘Madhyam’ among several other softwares.

Deepak Kumar Majhi, a first year student at IIT, Kharagpur. Also a blogger and reviewer.

Indra Awasthi, Oregon based, originally from UP and a Kolkatan by birth, He is an Engineering
graduate from Allahabad and infrequently blogs in Hindi.

Kaushik Narasimhan, an MTech from IIT-Bombay and a PhD student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Kaushik is an avid reader and movie-watcher.

Kinshuk Sunil, an open source enthusiast, has been developing games since 2005, writing literature and organizing technology unconferences. He is an alumnus of Sri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi.

Lavanya Raj, a stay at home mom owning a
food related blog since the past 1 and half year.

Laxman Koushik Krishnan, Graphic Designer based at Chennai. Working with web since 2002.

Mayank Chandak, an engineering student at JUIT, Waknaghat majoring in computer science. But he calls that a side job as he is a tech enthusiast concerned about new web technologies and services.

Megha Meshram, Software consultant, eye for all things nature and ear for all things music,
food-wine freak, highly opinionated, all that and more or less

Mohan K, a media studies, psychology & English literature student from Christ University,
Bangalore. He has been a blogger for the past 5 years and is associated with the Centre for Social Action.

Ninad Gujar, an engineer by training and a neuroscientist by profession; has a passion for
photography and travel. Also a budding entrepreneur and a citizen who wants
to create a social impact for the greater good.

Paras Sharma, 21 year old blogger from Mumbai, blogging since 2005, writer with Youth
magazine JAM since December 2007. Paras specializes in humor, poetry, music
and movie reviews.

Patrix, the founder of DesiPundit and author of popular blog Nerve Endings Firing Away. In the offline world, he is a doctoral student at Texas A&M majoring in Urban Planning. (Patrix volunteered only for the ‘Microblog category’)

Pradeep Chopra is a co-founder of OMLogic Consulting and Whizlabs Software, an IT education company. Whizlabs won NASSCOM’s Most Innovative Indian IT Company award in 2004.

Priya Venkateshan, just out of college and currently one of the millions of software engineers in Bangalore. As wanderlust she blogs about anything and everything that catches her fancy.

Ram Prasad Narsimhan, is experimenting with “early retirement” after working for over 12 years in corporate America. He wants to travel and plans to volunteer at NGO’s and organizations that could use his skills.

Rezwan, an Indonesia based blogger from Bangladesh; started blogging in April 2003. He blogs at The third world view and is an author/editor at Global Voices.

Rohit Sane, a second year IT student from Mumbai, blogging since 2006 on Blogs of different niches.

Shanti Mangala, is a long time blogger, known for starting the Bharteeya Blog Mela clique. A software engineer by profession she currently lives in Dallas.

Shweta L Khare, founder and president of Career bright – Career Coaching Services. Shweta is also the co-chair at the Career Resource Center at the India Community Center in Milpitas, California.

T V Srinivas, 48 years old Assistant General Manager with RBI, actively involved in writing
poems, stories and articles on social problems in Kannada.

Nominations begin for the Indibloggies 2008 edition

Debashish — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 05:55:01 +0000

The nomination phase for the Indibloggies 2008 edition has been flagged off. Here is your chance to showcase your blog to the whole world and win laurels from your peers and readers alike

Nominations for 17 award categories would be open from 16 Feb 2009 to 28 Feb 6 March 2009. Do take a look at the sponsors page to know about the prizes at stake.

The nomination form is located at http://nom2008.indibloggies.org
Update [6 Mar 2009]: Nominations are now closed.

Rules, etc:

You may also apply to be a part of the Jury through the same form. (The primary function of the Indibloggies Jury is to do a peer-review or screening of nominated blogs. The final voting takes place from the top blogs chosen by the Jurors in each award category. Jurors are required to stay away from the Indibloggies 2008 contest.)
Please don’t ask your friends or readers to nominate your blog multiple times, simply because Jurors don’t consider the count of nominations as any criteria for rating. Moreover, self-nomination is perfectly OK. Please beware that repeated nominations for the same blog may be treated as spamming and may lead to disqualification.
Please only enter the web-address (URL) for the main-page. NO Blog title or permalinks to posts please.
Twitter and suchlike URLs are acceptable only for the Microblog category.
Indibloggies contest is limited to blogs written in English language only. ~~We are considering holding Indibloggies for Indian language blogs in latter part of the year.~~

Happy nominating!

The Indibloggies 2008 Sponsors

Debashish — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 03:30:31 +0000

Do take a look at the award categories for the upcoming 2008 event. We would only be too happy if you could lend your support to this movement.

Would you like to be a part of the Indibloggies 2008 event? Please write to us with your proposal.

INDIBLOGGIES 2008 SPONSORS LINE-UP

SILVER SPONSORS

Books & Goodies from Hachette India

Hachette India would award:

Books worth Rs 3000 to the “Indiblog of the Year 2008″

Book Hampers worth Rs 1000 to the winner in each award category.

A copy of award-winning blogger Amit Varma’s upcoming book “My Friend Sancho” to the winner in each award category. Amit’s book will be published by Hachette India in April this year.

BRONZE SPONSORS

Scrapture Trophy from Arun Verma

A special “Indiblogger of the year” scrapture trophy, worth Rs 15,000, designed by Arun Verma Design Studios.

Problogger Book

Copies of the book “Problogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income” authored by well known professional bloggers Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett. For further details on the book please visit its official website.

Cash Awards from Zoho

Zoho would award Rs 2,000 each for the “Best Science/Technology Indiblog” & “Indiblog of the Year” categories. Zoho is a comprehensive suite of online applications (services) that you can easily access from Zoho.com.

Blog Hosting packages from Web1

Web1 would award a Blog-hosting package (1 domain name + 1 GB webspace + Latest WordPress + 1 Professional theme worth max $25) worth Rs 6500 to the winner of the “Best Personal Indiblog” and a Blog-hosting package (1 domain name + 1 GB webspace + Latest WordPress) worth Rs 5500/- each to winners of the “Best Designed Indiblog” and “Best Travel Indiblog”.

ThinkTweet Book by Rajesh Shetty

Copies of Think Tweet Book 1, worth $19.95 each, by Rajesh Shetty.

Surprise Gift from Pothi.com

A surprise gift to winners (in select 13 categories), worth Rs 155 each, by Pothi.com.

OTHER SPONSORS

AWARDS FROM THE BLOGGER COMMUNITY

Indian Social Aggregator India Sphere would award $30 to the winner in “Indiblog of the Year” category.

A copy of Complete Digital Photography, Fourth Edition (Graphics Series) by Ben Long, worth $26, for the Best Photo Blog from the food-blogger duo Jay & Bee of Jugalbandi.

Chetan Bhawani’s thewwwblog would award $15 in cash and a copy of the book Blog Blazers worth $17 to the “Indiblog of the Year”.

Cash Awards of $50 for the “Best Science/Technology Indiblog” and $50 for the “Best Designed Indiblog” from techblissonline.

Cash Awards of $20 for the “Best Business Indiblog” from Learn QTP.

~~Windows Vista Ultimate x64 licensed DVD worth Rs 12,000, by Anand Khanse, Microsoft MVP of winvistaclub.com for the “Best Science/Technology IndiBlog”.~~ Update [11 Jan 2009]: Anand has informed me that his offer was time-bound (which was not agreed upon when he offered the sponsorship) and that he has given the DVD to “another deserving winner”. Indibloggies apologises to the winner Amit Agarwal for this thoroughly unprofessional behaviour of Anand.

Our heartfelt thanks to all the Sponsors!

The Indibloggies 2008 award categories

Debashish — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 03:30:19 +0000

The upcoming 2008 event of the Indibloggies would award outstanding blogs in the following award-categories:

IndiBlog of the year
Best Humanities IndiBlog (IndiBlogs covering Art/Craft/Painting, Hobby, Literature, Poetry/Fiction)
Best Entertainment Indiblog (blogs on Music, TV, Movies, theatre & fashion)
Best Sports IndiBlog
Best Science/Technology IndiBlog
Best IndiBlog directory/service/clique/network
Best Designed IndiBlog (Blogs with original designs or with major visible customizations to existing themes)
Best Food/Beverages Indiblog
Most Humorous Indiblog
Best Indi Podcast/Vidcast
Best Travel Indiblog
Best New Indiblog (IndiBloggers who began blogging on/after July 1, 2008)
Best Photo Indiblog
Best Personal Indiblog
Best Group/Community Indiblog
Best Business Indiblog
Best Indi Microblog

To know about the prizes being distributed in these award categories please click here.

Nominations for the 2008 Indibloggies haven’t started yet. We would make an announcement about nominations shortly. Meanwhile, please don’t send nominations via contact form or comment form.