Finest Posts - April 2008 Winner!

Dear ILites,

Ever so once, don't we all embark on a spiritual self search?? Wonder if we are doing the right thing?? We in FP 'boldly go' into that introspective journey every month.When faced with numerous nominations each a winner in its own merit and right, we have to exercise every moral and literary fiber to pick one single post as the winner.

What makes a post the Finest Post?? Time and again, we have said that we do not go by the number of views, replies or even nominations. The search is not for a popular post, the quest is for the Finest Post. One that carries a message, one that involves the IL community, one that keeps humankind in perspective. A post that leaves us feeling better, more empowered, and more determined. And in that genre, we are immensely happy to declare the Finest post of Aprl 2008:

To understand a woman better.....your help needed!
by
srinivasan_vanaja

You can read this @ To understand a woman better.....your help needed!

Here is the special gift for this Finest Post of April!
It is a hand painted, hand crafted "Wildflower" Salt & Pepper Shaker Set from Hawaii.




Congrats, Vanaja!

You have posted a genuine winner here.


And in announcing the winner of the FP contest, we have to name another equally important winner member who was the first to nominate the winning post.


Congrats, Vase!

It takes a lot of appreciation and awareness to spot a winner post and you have been the first to do so!


There are many, many reasons why we have deemed this the Finest Post of April. For starters, this question is one that is most topical, most gender oriented and most innovative. And above that, this post is not merely one where we read, appreciate, post our admiration and move on.

Vanaja has asked for a discourse, a debate on the dilemmas and difficulties of women today; and then the role of the media in shaping the learning and awareness of women. We all live in an Information Age dominated and manipulated by the media. While on one side we have a positive influence like a cyber support group like Indusladies, on the other we have degenerative soap operas that show life in its worst moral squalor. And in such a world, it is very crucial that women as mothers and individuals learn to identify what they need to learn from the media. To say that this could lead to cyber lobbying for better media culture is not far fetched.

And here, we congratulate Vanaja and all other ILites who have participated in this instructive thread and offered their valuable opinions and suggestions. The choice between family and career, stereotyping of women's careers, the options available in raising children as valuable citizens in a difficult world, the necessity for financial independence, the conflict between caring for parents and in-laws, the plight of economically weak women in handling drunken husbands and family finances, tensions of career women, matriarchal societie, female infanticide------ the problems identified by our erudite members are legion.

And in the type of learning that women need from the media- our ILites have again zeroed in on excellent lessons. Business advice which encompasses financial management lessons to streamline the finances of the family and business, legal help to take care of familial, dowry, sex harassment and other disturbances, awareness about Self help groups, time management, career management with work at home info, diverse needs from media for rural and urban women, emphasis on familial and community unity, health education, the throw of power words like 'pottai'---- again these are some of the issues that our women want the media to address.

This post is longer than usual since we wanted to highlight the finer points of the discussion that ensued following Vanaja's question. Let us a responsible parents, professionals and persons read through this entire thread patiently and diligently to make our lives better.

Congrats! again, Vananja!! We are truly happy about the Finest Post of April 2008.

regards
Vidya and Kamla

congrats vanaja,
a laudable article and i feel u deserve it,keep it up..all the best and more to come...sunkan

Dear Vidya,
My compliments on selecting the finest thread as the Finest post of April.This is not Vanaja's victory alone,it is our victory,victory of women in doing introspection and coming out victorious.Let us pray to God that he gives each and every one of us the courage to be united and face life with its pluses and minuses.
mithila kannan

hi vanaja,

CONGRATS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

regards raji.

My dear Vanaja,
My heartiest congratulations on winning the Finest Post award for the month of April
Even when I read that post I felt that if any post deserved to be called the finest post,yours was the one.Once again my congratulations!
mithila kannan

Dear ILites,

Kamla had written once in her own beautiful style that deciding on one post as the winner is easy. The difficult task is to decide which ones will not be the winner. And wrt the nominations for April 2008, I cannot say it better than Kamla. Once again, congrats to srinivasan_vanaja- winner of FP April 2008.

In one of the nominations thread, we read a comment that judgement is a matter of personal taste and choice. And in a larger context, this philosophy is true. Who decides which is better- a glass of buttermilk or a decadent bowl of shrikand?? The base may be the same, but the effects are vastly different. In targeting the Finest Post, we try to stay above many personal likes and dislikes. And we strictly, have no friends and enemies when we do the judging. And often, we seek the opinion of other minds with the hope that a new, fresh eye and mind will help us decide on that one Finest Post.

April was not an easy month for us to decide the winner. We had our very young member Ramya with her stay young mantras. We had a touhing love stopry with all the right ingredients from patriotism to possessive friendship to love after years of marriage in Mithila's, 'Jayanthi- A Love story'. This story also received the maximum number of nominations in April. We had another nomination of Swayambhus a post and Living with my Heart, a a poem by none other than the IL Guru, Cheeniyasir. We were prodded to ponder if we are setting the right example and if this ever happens to us. Varalotti's invitation to 'come with ' him, the changing face of discipline, the value of love marriage, Kamalji's dare, why die for others' along with two splendid replies by devika and Soaring Spirit, and finally a whole series of posts by Mithila Kannan.

Reading the nominations was a breeze, deciding on the April winner was a tornado. And we hope we did right by us, we hope we did right by all of you ILites and we hope we did right by the philosophy of Finest Posts. Please stay with us as we go ahead. See you all in May nominations.

affly
Kamla and Vidya24

Dear SrinivasanVanaja,

Congratulations!!!

This is a very well deserved win. Before you say anything, I agree with your already mentioned sentiment that the win is to be shared by all those who participated in that thread adding to its initial worth and value:)

This was a tall order from you Vanaja, then who understands a woman ?!
The questions you posed were thought provoking and like you say, the answers are valuable for the betterment of women. And, so they were ! The participants gave wonderful insight as to what today's women need and must have, how media should work for it. The whole thread is a worthy read and must be read by everyone of us at least once.

L, Kamla

Dear Vidya,

As usual, that was an excellent presentation of today's announcement.

I admit that I envy your writing skills and the excellent command over the English language.
It is always a treat to read your writings :)

L, Kamla

Dear Vanaja,

Congratulations on winning the FP!!!

Hearty Congratulations to you, Vanaja!!

That was a wonderful post and a winner all the way and I am very glad you won the FP of the month.

Love,
Devika