Interview with Tomz of Vanity Moments

To tell you the truth it has been only days since I came across Vanity Moments but I instantly connected with the stories Tomz has to share. As he points out these are not imaginary stories, these are happenings in his life but the way he portrays it makes it fun to read.

When someone writes fiction and the readers believe it was real, it is a compliment to the author. Same way, when someone narrates a true incident which the readers believe is fictional, it is equally complimenting to the author. That way, Tomz has what it takes to entice his readers and fellow bloggers.

The quote here is from his blog profile which sets the stage as we go on to meet with Tomz!

"Answering the Who Am I question. A person with dual personality. As a citizen of the outer world I am known as Tom. As a netizen of the cyber world I assume the other self as Tomz. The cyber man is more expressive. Not like the worldly man with charming pretentions. This introduction is the version of the cyber man. The outer man may have another story to tell"



?Can you tell us a little about yourself? Please include where you are from.

! First of all, let me thank the NRI Girl for giving an opportunity to let on what I really mean by blogging, and why do I blog. Most often I feel confused about answering certain questions, and this is such a question when I really feel awkward to speak about myself. I strongly believe that talking about oneself is far far away from telling only one’s name and address. Well, if I follow the traditional way of speaking about myself, let me tell you I am Tom Thomas, blogging for a while under the name Tomz, hailing from the beautiful South Indian state Kerala. And if you ask me how did I derive the pseudonym Tomz, I can simply tell you that it was a result of just following the new-generation e-traditions of ending everything with an ‘z’ in order to make them appear ‘hot’.

? How did you first get involved in blogging?

! Quite accidental! The idea of blogging and writing on the internet world came to me as a result of my association with social networking sites. At that time, I happened to make a short documentary video on the beautiful Kerala beach, Shankhumugham, in which I appeared as narrating the things to be visited around the Beach in my mother tongue Malayalam. After uploading it in YouTube, I searched for a better platform to promote it among my friends in the social networking sites and that search finally ended in the idea of creating a blog.

Seeing the video, a well wisher from Hyderabad, appreciated me and expressed her wish to see the video remade with my English speech. To explain what I speak in the video to my non-Kerala friends, I wrote a screen made script and added it below the video in my blog. So, that’s how I first get involved in blogging. It is to be mentioned that this video film later was recognized by Kerala Tourism and YouTube as a consolation prize winner in an amateur video festival.

? What do you do when you aren’t blogging?

! Well, If I answer to this question from a Blogger’s perspective, I would say, blogging has become a way of life for me. I am not a frequent blogger, updates my blog only twice or thrice a month. But, when I am not blogging also, I used to think and scrutinize themes for my next post. I used to keenly watch and observe things wherever I go, whatever I do, or whoever I meet, to get creatively inspired so that I can consolidate those experiences into a new post sooner or at least in a later stage. And to tell you the truth, I often face criticism from some of my close-ones for approaching everything with a Blogger’s perspective.

? How did you come up with the name for your blog?
! When I started my blog Vanity Moments, first I gave the name Droplets to my blog inspired by my first header image, which was an image of a water drop hanging on the tip of a lively green leaf. But, when I later continued writing with my experiences featured, and developed a writing style, I found that I write about only myself, about my own funny, romantic, tragic or proud moments. I use the word Vanity in order to express sarcasm. Through the title itself, I am trying to mock myself for becoming a persistent boaster. The sub-title, ‘My Boastful Blog’ also expresses the same idea. I am fancied by titles with two words, preferably two rhyming words. Even if Vanity does not rhyme with Moments, I feel this coinage as a whole, generates a musical tone.

? What is your favorite post that you have written? What makes it special?
! Well, I like many of my posts, but if you ask my most favorite, I would say, it is Girl on Crutches. Not because it is about a girl, or about love, or about something other, which are appealing to the youth, but only because of its narrative technique, which I came to apply in some distorted forms to my several later entries. Girl on Crutches follows almost the same pattern of a Frame Story, that means, a story within a story.

? Any regrets about any of your posts?
! If I feel regret about any of my posts, I would soon go to my dashboard and would hide it from the public view. So far it has happened once, and that post is still there in a draft form. I am planning to edit the post so that I can republish it after making the contents agreeable for everyone mentioned there. In fact, I want to edit those parts where I mentioned about myself.

? Tell us a joke please.
! I have not yet succeeded in cracking jokes successfully. Because, whenever I begin to tell a joke, I used to laugh uncontrollably preventing the listeners from understanding what I am trying to speak…Ha Ha Ha...see, I have already started laughing.

? What can readers expect in your blog? What is it about?
! Hmm…I always wanted to write about issues which will make my readers think, like socially relevant ones or serious issues. I hope if I can write thoughtful articles regarding poverty in India, women empowerment in villages, education of underprivileged children, politics, corruption, policing, tourism destinations, film and book reviews or anything which will provoke others into a serious discussion. But being an introvert, I am able to only introspect and thus being able to write about myself only.

My readers often become confused about the credibility of what I write. They often consider my entries as tactically fabricated stories. They often ask me in comments if I really underwent such an incident or if I fabricated it. To tell the truth, I don’t write stories. I write only my own experiences after making it beautified with a fictitious coating.

? Is there anything else you want to share?
! My pessimistic perspective says that the life is not good. It is generally bitter. So, to make the life of people around us better, I prefer to write about happiness. I think, that’s why my readers often comment that my posts made them smile. I also blog at Little Lyrics. By each post, I am trying to become a better writer.

? Now, if you have a question for me (NRIGirl) this is your chance to ask.
! Hi NRIGirl, do you think, you are making the network of the Bloggers around you a bit more close-knit through this interview series?