The Conclave Saga: Intro

When my post won a prize which was the pass to the India Today Conclave (https://theteacerebration.wordpress.com/2015/02/21/the-vision/), I wasn’t actually ready for this. Yes, I always knew that there was this prize for the contest, but was rather more interested in writing about that idea than thinking about the prize. It was the same reason why I posted that one which turned out to be the winning post – coming to Delhi wasn’t among my worries when I posted that on my blog at a time when I was bored and was looking to write on something.

There are not many of my readers who don’t know the Vampire Bat story, even as it started the same more on the other blog – Movies of the Soul. I wanted this idea of the Vampire Bat’s world to work, and this time, it did, and I am really happy about it. The Vampire Bat’s utopia was to be mine, and there was no other way through which I wanted to write the second post for the contest.

As I wasn’t ready, I couldn’t really reply to the winning mail fast enough. But then I thought, what was there to lose? Except for the money played for the flight tickets, stay and the food when not part of the Conclave – but there was no replacement for an experience. Then there is the element of time – I was preparing for the PSC exams and would miss the coaching for a few days, but it wasn’t something that couldn’t be brought back on track with some effort, but the Conclave was something that was a first opportunity for me.

Yes, Delhi is quite far away, and I was sure that I have to cover a lot of distance for this programme. I asked myself, why not? This is the first time I actually won a contest from a major blogging community (Thank you BlogAdda – http://www.blogadda.com). I didn’t need to miss out on this, as this was a special event and I had never visited Delhi. This was also a trip, and not just an attempt to claim a prize and see a few celebrities on the stage. This also had an intellectual side, and even though I had the ability to come up with many excuses, there was not the need for any, because I could just go.

It was not a good start for the journey. The flight was delayed and I was caught in the heavy traffic of Delhi later – that kind of traffic from which I had doubts about making it out alive even though it made me a lot more confident about driving around Cochin. The wait at the Mumbai Airport was worse, and the waiting procedure continued only to have me at the destination much later than expected, and I had to wake up early on the next day to get to the Conclave at the expected time.

It was my birthday when I started from my hometown, but it didn’t go the usual way. Half of it was spent at Cochin getting prepared for the journey, and the rest at Delhi and in the flight with a part at the Mumbai Airport. The day for the Conclave was to begin was waiting to arrive. It was cold and I felt like being frozen, coming right out the hot climate at Cochin. I haven’t been good friends with low temperature for quite a long time.

I reached Hotel Taj Palace at 7:45 AM next day though. I did feel that it was more than needed, as I thought that I was not going to make it on time after that birthday which had no celebration at all – yes, people who were not on my Facebook list completely forgot that I was born on that day. But it is quite natural, and I hoped, or at times knew that it could only get better later. After all, I had come all the way from Cochin to attend this one programme. The post about the experience of those days coming up 🙂 #Conclave15

*The photos used in this blog post were taken on my Sony Cybershot DSC-W310 at Delhi.

TeNy

Advertisement