Welcome Two New Veteran Blog-a-Tonics

When I declared that Blog-a-Ton is going on a break, many hearts were broken as they felt they were too close to be inducted into the List of Veteran Blog-a-Tonics. Though the recent participations do not indicate the same enthusiasm as existed a year ago, for some bloggers Blog-a-Ton remains the favourite blogging event as communicated to me on innumerable times.

Hence, it gives me immense pleasure to induct two new Veteran Blog-a-Tonics to this coveted list who could reach the 10 BAT participation mark thanks to the existing Veterans who came forward to marshal this event in the last two months.

Moreover, one of this new inductee has already taken up the burden and initiated th BAT 20 just a few days back.

Click on their respective names to read all their BAT entries

	Someone is Special Debut = BAT 7 11/19 BATs MARSHAL OF THE MONTH, BAT 20
Amity Debut = BAT 10 10/19 BATs GOLD BATOM 15 GOLD BATOM 16

'Someone is Special' has already shared his Blog-a-Ton Experiences with all of us. Looking forward to Amity's experiences, our first non-Indian Veteran Blog-a-Tonic.

And now friends, head to the topic discussion for BAT 20.

Looking forward to a little more enthusiasm this BAT
Blog-a-Tonically Yours

Vipul Grover

Welcome 3 more VETERANS and an IMPORTANT NEWS!!!

Hello friends, the List of Veteran Blog-a-Tonics has been growing since the first induction that took place on the first anniversary of this event some months back. Today, in this fourth induction ceremony, I'll be welcoming three new Blog-a-tonics to this coveted (or is it just me who thinks its coveted?) list.

Click on their respective names to read all their BAT entries

	Tavish Chadha Debut = BAT 5 11/17 BATs BATOM 8 BATOM 9
Guria Debut = BAT 2 10/17 BATs BATOM 3
	Leo Debut = BAT 8 10/17 BATs GOLD BATOM 13 GOLD BATOM 16 'tied' Maximum Topics of the Month

Guria aka Sreya wants to share her award with Neha Thakkar who has anonymously contributed to her posts in Blog-a-Ton. I leave that decision to her.

I’ll like to share my gratitude to all these Blog-a-Tonics by inducting them in The List of Veteran Blog-a-Tonics' which takes the total number to 10. You will receive your badges soon.

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And now the All Important News...

Friends, conducting this event month after month has been exhilarating but has also been tiring at times. I know this is a paradox but then this life itself is a big paradox.

Declaring the event open, conducting the topic discussion, holding the actual marathon and then proceeding to the voting and final declaration of BATOM was done by me playfully ALL IN A DAY’S WORK. But then, sometimes there develops a thin line between work and play and certainly I don’t feel that playful anymore.

Before I start philosophizing further and make a FOOL out of myself, I must RETURN to the news I wanted to share.

Without adding any further MYSTERY, I believe it’s time for me to take a break after conducting 17 successful BAT's which saw their own ups and downs.

Seeing the falling number of participations, I believe even you need a break; so that all of you can come back with a new vigour whenever I make a call for a new Marathon in future.

Believe me, this is not an ESCAPE and I really doubt if I’ll be able to remain HIDDEN for long. For that matter, the Marshal will always be present on Facebook to keep interacting with you.

I know some of you must be wondering WHAT IF we could TIME TRAVEL and jump to Blog-a-Ton 18 as soon as possible but believe me, the time for CELEBRATIONS will be back soon.

However, right now it is the time to say a momentary GOODBYE to all of you and I hope you all will miss Blog-a-Ton as much as it will miss you.

Leaving with a promise to be back

Blog-a-Tonically Yours

Vipul Grover

Time to Unfold THE MYSTERY of the Topic and Present to you another VETERAN BATONIC

Date for Blog-a-Ton 17 : December 4, 2010 

With a week to go for the seventeenth marathon of bloggers, here is the time to reveal the topic for the month.

But before that lets welcome the new Blog-a-Tonics who will be running in this marathon with us;

• Ravinder Gulati
• Beyond Horizon
• Megha Jethmalani
• Hopelessly Flawed
• Rugrocks
• Sreelekha Laxman
• Sayujya Sankar
• Blue Lotus
• Megha Arora
• Dr. Sharmila

Hoping to see you all participating in BAT 17. Please provide your bloglinks to stay in touch!!!

Well, well there is another small break, before I reveal the topic (which obviously you already know thanks to the title of this post), lets welcome a new Inductee to the Veteran Blog-a-Tonics List.

Shruti Damodar - 10/16 BAT's

Shruti, who blogs at Hits and Misses participated in BAT for the first time during the second marathon. She is also the GOLD BATOM 14 (tied) and a very dear friend. It gives me a great joy to induct her into the Veteran Blog-a-Tonics List. 

Click here to read all her Blog-a-Ton posts.

Hoping to see many more of you in this list soon.

Now coming back to the topic declaration; on the basis of the voting over last one week, we have narrowed down to the topic for BAT 17.

 Topic for Blog-a-Ton 17 : THE MYSTERY

Leo once again makes a comeback with the most favoured topic, though it has been tweaked a little upon Brijender's suggestion.

SOME RULES

1. You can submit ONLY ONE POST for this event irrespective of the number of blogs you maintain.
2. The title of your post should be The Mystery.
3. You must justify this title with a complementary post. To make things easier, you have the freedom to treat it the way you want. Its upto you; which genre of writing you choose, i.e. simple essay-type, article, dialogue, short story (even 55 Fiction for that matter), poem or whatever you feel like.
4. Moreover, its upto you; which mood or tone you choose to set it in, i.e. serious, witty, humour, optimistic or whatever that comes to you naturally.
5. If you are having a cartoon blog, photo blog, painting blog etc, even you can participate with your piece of art complementing this title.
6. You have the freedom to choose the language of communication. However, we'll suggest you to write in English to put across your views to the maximum members which will also help you when its the time to vote for the BATOM.
7. Other rules regarding the posting will be conveyed to you later. So kindly wait for that notification on next Friday rather than putting up queries right now. If the queries are regarding general pattern of the event, please go through the posts about previous events.

So, you all have ample time to write it but you'll have to wait till Dec 4 to post it finally along with everyone else.

Please write your posts on time as the late entries will not be allowed to participate in the voting round (though the links will be added to the participants list).

Wishing you all, a free flow of thoughts

Blog-a-Tonically yours

Vipul Grover

Three BATOMs and a VETERAN

Another great edition of BAT comes to an end as India celebrates the 64th Independence Day. In BAT 13, we have covered 3/4th of our journey thanks to 75 entries coming this month.

As always, even in this edition we read some great posts but only some could garner the desired votes. Before we see the results, let's welcome the new members of Blog-a-Ton;

• Sadiya
• Mehak Sagar
• Jinny (Please provide a bloglink to be blogrolled)
• AV
• Akshay
• Naveen
• Lea Helmerich (Please provide a bloglink to be blogrolled)
• Pratibha Singh

You all will be blogrolled soon!

So now, without loosing any time, lets see who are the BATOM 13...

BLOGATONIC 13

As evident, here are the three Blog-a-Tonics of the Month. Just Click on their names to read their respective entries.

GOLD BATOM	SILVER BATOM	BRONZE BATOM
Leonnyes	Vipul Grover	Karthik

Siddhesh also deserves an applause for nearly making it to the top.

You all can also read the voting comments now. Just click here to find who all voted for you or liked your entry and what they had to say about it!

In this edition, I came across some posts which were not doing justice to the given topic. They were written really well and even garnered votes but somehow, they had nothing to do with Goodbye. Please, do full justice to the given topic in future.

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List of Veteran Blog-a-Tonics

Last week, you all read the Blog-a-ton Experience of an anonymous blogger who blogs by the pseudo-name Tuppence.  She joined BAT in its second edition and has been a regular since then, missing just one edition in all this time.

Tuppence

 11/13 BATs 

 

You can read all her entries here - http://matuppenceworth.blogspot.com/search/label/blog-a-ton

To show my gratitude to this passionate Blog-a-tonic, I am inducting her into the List of Veteran Blog-a-Tonics. Join me in congratulating her!

Even you can get inducted to this list. To be eligible, you must have participated in atleast 10 BAT's.

Once your number of participation reaches 10, just drop me a mail with the links to all your posts (or simply label all your BAT entries and send me that single link).

Wishing you all a Happy Independence Day

Blog-a-Tonically Yours

Vipul Grover

My BAT XP and VETERAN BATonics!!!

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To some it reminds the Dark Knight , to some it reminds Sachin

Tendulkar ; but when you ask the bloggers, BAT reminds them 

the red and blue, three haired winking Marshal   .

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Are you are here to decide the topic for BAT 13???

Click here to do so.

Or simply continue reading My Blog-a-Ton Experience and Meet the Veteran Blog-a-Tonics.

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It’s been one whole year, a wonderful one year in this journey of Blog-a-Ton. As a blogger, I have created my own niche in this period while as the Marshal, I have enjoyed the whole process and the appreciation I have received for my initiative.

Did I ever expect BAT to rise to such an extent?

Yes, I always hoped so. That’s why the mission from DAY 1 was to have an edition with 100 participants. It was frustrating when after rising initially, for next six editions the number of participations kept swinging around 40-45 and came crashing down to 35 during BAT 9. It was surprising when in the very next edition, the number touched 60 and within two more editions, it has reached 70. The ultimate mission now seems within reach, thanks to all the bloggers who keep participating month after month, also attracting other fellow bloggers in this process.

Did I ever expect to win BAT?

Yes, I always hoped so. It was very frustrating when despite writing some good posts in the initial editions, I failed to garner desired votes. Competition was always stiff. The quality of entries was always great. It took 10 BATs to win the BATOM badge award and within two more editions, I have two BATOMs under my belt.

However, this has also got me thinking if it is fair for other participants. Should I, being the Marshal, be competing with them for BATOM? With due respect to all those who have voted for me in previous two BATs I participated in, and made me win both of them, I do wonder if  there is any kind of favoritism taking place! It is a tough call for me as BAT has become a way of life for me, not just as a Marshal but also as a Blog-a-Tonic. So, do give your feedback about it!

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FELLOW TRAVELERS
THE VETERAN BLOG-A-TONICS

In the last three weeks, four wonderful bloggers have shared their BAT XP with you. These are the four who started this journey with me on August 1, 2010 participating in Blog-a-Ton 1. There were 7 other bloggers too, but only these 4 have stayed and enriched BAT with their wonderful posts month after month.

Click on their respective names to read all their BAT entries

	Shilpa Garg 12/12 BATs BATOM 1
Pawan Maruvada 11/12 BATs BATOM 5 SILVER BATOM 12
	Siddhesh 'Ravan' Kabe 10/12 BATs Designer of BATOM and Veteran BATonic badges Meet Marshal of BAT Pune Meet
Vipul Grover 10/12 BATs BATOM 10 GOLD BATOM 12 Founder Marshal of BAT
	Dhiman Manji 9/12 BATs Future BATOM *fingers crossed*

I’ll like to share my gratitude by inducting them in BATs Hall of Fame, which has been named as  'The List of Veteran Blog-a-Tonics'!!!

So the first five inductees to the List of Veteran Blog-a-Tonics are

• Shilpa Garg
• Pawan Maruvada
• Siddhesh Kabe
• Vipul Grover
• Dhiman Manji

Click on their names to read their Blog-a-Ton Experience (BAT XP)!!!

Here is the list of all the 13 entries for Blog-a-Ton 1. The topic was "The Cream and Scum of Blogging".
Arjuna, Saimanohar, Dhiman, Vipul Grover, Avdi, Daisy Blue, Sid 'Ravan' Kabe, Shankar, Shilpa Garg, Bharathi, Ranee[1], Ranee[2] and Pawan.
Shilpa Garg was voted as the First Blog-a-Tonic of the Month.

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There are many others who joined in the following editions and have been with BAT ever since. You all will be inducted in the following months after scrutinizing your posts and your performance in BAT.

To be eligible, you must have participated in atleast 10 BAT's.

Once your number of participation reaches 10, just drop me a mail with the links to all your posts (or simply label all your BAT entries and send me that single link).

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Hoping to see many more inductees in future

Blog-a-Tonically Yours

Vipul Grover