The Blog Post No: 500

I have been moving towards this milestone, the five hundredth post on this blog for some time – there was a time when I thought that I could get to five hundred posts only while combining all my blogs together, but here I am, as The Tea Cerebration(s) has achieved that figure. I have been thinking about writing about a movie for this special occasion, but then I felt that I should stick to the personal side with this post. I really haven’t watched that special a movie for some time; so lets take this one back through the memories.

Lets talk about the awesome people I have met in the last one year or so. At a time when I was wondering what was next for me, the blogging fraternity has always been there for me – I am thankful to them for the same. I have met a number of my fellow bloggers, all of them at Cochin or Delhi. I have met a lot of people already from online communities, and last one year for so, has been special. I have met some of the most amazing people in these times, and I have been a lot of happy about the same.

At Delhi, there were four other bloggers for the conclave, as the winners of the writing contest on The World Remade; I met Arvind, Shoma, Shreya and Yogita at Taj Palace Hotel, Delhi. It was the best of times – I also met Mayank from India Today there. This one might always be my biggest win ever, and the only time when I have met so many bloggers at the same time. It was also one of the most interesting journeys of all-time, with the chance to see all those celebrities in person, and also to wander around the city as a tourist. I really needed a reason to visit Taj Mahal, and finally, there I was, with the suitable reason.

I was surely left with the feeling that I missed meeting so many other bloggers at Delhi though, with the chance there – maybe there is another opportunity on another day. Life has the ability to provide you with second chances, as I have felt and proven at many points of my time-line of existence. Well, hope has got wings, right? I am sure that we have read that somewhere in a poem. According to Emily Dickinson, it had feathers, I guess. It should never cease to exist – there were many situations when I thought that I was done with blogging, but here I am, with my existence still being there.

On another day, I managed to meet Anoop, at the Ernakulam South railway station, followed by four cups of tea. It was a meeting which was waiting to happen; I was sure that it was supposed to happen some day, and in the end, it did. At least before Batman was to go and battle Superman, it had to happen 😛 At my break between two movies – Paavada and Monsoon Mangoes, I met Ranjini at the mall – with the tea; that was another meeting which was due for so long, of course; well, we did happen to go to the same school at a point of our life too 😛 Well, a fine day is to be chosen for meeting such wonderful people. I was just lucky enough to find the best time 😀

I later met Deepa at Durbar Hall Art Gallery in Cochin during the exhibition of her paintings last month; feels good to see such awesome creativity at any time. It was just last day that I met Shrinidhi during his visit to Cochin. I am more than happy to meet such amazing people, they have been directly or indirectly a significant part of my life, as not only have they supported me, but their writings have always been a source of inspiration for me. People look at many fields for some motivation, but I have found the same among my friends – the bloggers about whom I have talked about a lot already.

It has taken me 642 days to get to 500 posts on this blog. I have been stuck at the score of 499 for too long after continuously writing for more than a year, and I am glad to have finally got to this milestone. Sometimes, you feel that you need these scores to make you remember, but there are occasions when you understand that it is all about the ideas and the people, and the records and achievements will just follow. I haven’t been able to blog much in the last few months due to work, but I hope to keep this going, as blogging has defined my life more than anything else, and the impact has surely been deeper than I felt earlier.

***The images used in this blog post were taken by me on my Sony Cybershot DSC-W310.

TeNy

The Changes of Life

Life changes, and it was always expected to happen. Even after a change, that particular changed situation is also going to change. It is not something that I wasn’t expecting, but it did come all of a sudden, and it is actually a good thing. One more year without change and I might have been rather too hesitant to change – I would have detested it and might have tried to prevent it in all ways possible. But not now, as this change is something that I wanted long ago, even before I started this blog.

People still say that if you take a degree in MA English Language and Literature, you have to write NET and even try for JRF, and it is the natural path right ahead of you. They say that you have to follow this path or not do justice to what you have studied, and most probably you won’t get another job at all. I know that most of my friends have done that and the rest have gone on to do BEd and made the choice to do SET instead – note the difference, but I consider it rather minute.

If you look in our class, you can find a maximum of one person who hasn’t gone after NET or SET, and not trying to become the college professor or school teacher – I have made it two in that case, and it is the divergence that I have always wanted; with the master divergent movie Charlie winning so many of the state film awards, you might want the same too. Society has that idea that teaching in school or college is the better choice, especially for women, because they can reach home earlier, and there might be even many free hours – I know a few who have pursued the same for this reason.

I have walked around a lot these days through my favourite bus station!

Well, the case of post graduation in English has been rather strange. It is like the least professional course around here; you are not really preferred for most of the jobs out there. The newspapers and magazines ask for a journalism degree, and so I am glad to be part of a publishing house right now; it was getting seemingly impossible to get a job. Most people don’t even reply when an MA English graduate send a resume; they just don’t seem to have that idea that we are just readers and nothing else.

It is the same reason why me getting this job has been very significant. It has been the result of a long wait, and it is the same reason why I have broken my writing streak on my blog. If you remember, I have been writing continuously from December 9th 2014 to February 3rd 2016 – I continued for a few days after joining work, but it was getting tough with my timing as I start around 6:30 AM and return home around 8:30 PM – that is just the average, as I have reached at 7:30 and 9:30.

I have really less time at home, and so I have reduced my blogging just before reaching 500 posts on this blog, as this one is the post number 496. As of now, it seems that the 500th special post won’t happen anytime soon. But it might change some day, as the journey is just about 40 km even though it is the kind of a journey that can take about two hours, thanks to the pot-holes, traffic problems, change of timing of buses and the metro as well as fly-over constructions which are going on.

I once again travel through the bus station where I have passed through the most!

I have surely managed to be more used to it though, even as it still ends with me getting so much tired. I spend my time on the bus listening to music or watching some movie or television series in English. Well, at least I will have something to write about what I watch and the long journey which should actually finish in 45 minutes, but extends to two or even three hours based on which bus I manage to catch, and how many of times I have to change that giant transport!

***The images used in this blog post were taken by me on my Asus Zenfone 5.

TeNy

Award: Premio Dardos

The season of Christmas has arrived as we await the big day to bring some memories and a certain amount of happiness back to us again. It is that kind of a season when we look forward to gifts and more gifts. Meanwhile, here is an award which has come here after a long time; thanks to Akhil 🙂

You can see his post about the award here

PREMIO DARDOS AWARD
Premio Dardos is Italian for Prize Darts. This is given in the spirit of Friendship, Creativity, Community and Originality 🙂

And the rules…
# Include the Premio Dardos Award Picture and the name of the person that nominated you. (Include a link to their blog)
# Nominate 3 other blogs/bloggers which you want to (The number of blogs can be varied).
# Thank the blogger who nominated you in your blog and link back.

And my three nominees are:

Namrata

Sachin

Arvind

Let the good days leading to Christmas continue and hope that there will be something awesome coming through… 🙂

TeNy

What Do We Know?

There has been no shortage of newspapers in the vampire world which were smuggled through the portal to the other realm. One of them had the attention of Dracula who decided to teleport himself to the land of the humans, where the Vampire Bat awaited his arrival. “What is it about this India Today Woman Summit and what is this thing about women wanting to be treated specially or equally? What is wrong with these humans and what is it that these people require?” Dracula wondered. A certain understanding was reached with five situations at five different places.

They first stopped at a village where a woman was looking to keep her second child after losing the first one to female foeticide forced upon her by the relatives of her husband. She had her own doubts about this one too, and had left the house. Dracula refused to believe such incidents happening during this modern age and wondered if they had used the time machine instead of the teleportation device, but the Vampire Bat assured him that it is the right device, and to make sure about the same, pressed the button again to instantly teleport them to another location.

The device re-appeared at another location and it crashed into the garden of a house. They were quick to hide the machine and listened to the conversation going on inside home. While leaving, Dracula asked “Why should this girl stay with the idiot who is not worthy of marriage? Just because he is rich and has good looks, why should she tolerate this egoistic maniac? This is ridiculous”. “I would blame the parents in this case. They are always looking for the rich men from reputed families and not men with character. Some idiots think that a job with high salary and family reputation means everything” said the Vampire Bat.

The repaired device stopped at the top of an Airtel mobile tower. They looked around with their exaggerated visions to notice two separate incidents, one where a girl was stalked by three men, and another where four men were acquitted by the court nearby as the accusation on them for molestation was wrong. “This is rather confusing. Which one is real? One of them is an illusion, right?” asked Dracula. “Both are real. There are just good men and women and then there are the evil ones” replied the Vampire Bat. “It is just not that simple as it is in the vampire world. Humans are too unpredictable” he added.

“See that one on the left side!” the Vampire Bat screamed. Dracula turned around to see a man yelling about shortage of dowry. “That idiot! I don’t understand why the families get the women to marry these men who ask for money. There is no favour being done here, and marriage is not about saving the girl. They should say no to the men who ask dowry, no matter what he has to offer. This is not love, but an insult to women. It is a shame that they even give dowry for love marriages” said Dracula. “I have told you many times that these humans are strange. Even most of the good men don’t have the right to choose what to study and whom or when to marry” said the Vampire Bat.

They rested under a tree behind a stage on which a lady was speaking about why all men are evil and how they should leave the women alone to achieve what they have always wanted. They remembered that the same lady had asked for more reservations for women in various fields along with some special treatment at another venue. She had also asked for hatred against men. “Who is she?” Dracula asked. “It is a human thing. They don’t really know what they want, but they find ways to hate each other every day. She is just a very good contributor in one particular field. The religion and caste based hate fields are more popular” the Vampire Bat replied.

“Forget them. Nobody has any idea. At least do you actually know what you want?” Dracula asked. “I don’t know it either. But I have understood that there will never be true equality unless everyone tries to achieve it, stopping the discrimination on the basis of not just sex, but also social status, caste, religion, community, money, race, language and everything else which divides the world including the extremities of nationalism” said the Vampire Bat. “I am delighted to know that you are thinking exactly the same way as I have been directing my thoughts” said Dracula as he disappeared into the shadows.

I’m blogging for the India Today Woman Summit 2015 #WomenPower activity at BlogAdda.

***The images used in this blog post are from the Official Facebook Page of the movie, Hotel Transylvania.

TeNy

Blogging for Eternity

***My final inspirational bloggers list.

Tara @ Crimson April has been a continuous support to my blog, and The Tea Cerebration(s) with its two biggest super-vampires the Vampire Bat and the Vampire Owl would love to thank her not just for her comments here, but also for the creative ideas which she has been giving through her blog. I consider her blog as a source and exhibition of wonderful creativity. Still, above them all, it would be for that post-card which she sent and became a source of inspiration to write more and more. As she mentions on her blog, there is a creative energy magnet there 🙂

Moon @ Footloose Forever has been another source of inspiration for me. This place has been my favourite nature blog, and she has come up with some wonderful descriptions of places which has left me with a desire to travel a lot. She also has some amazing photos to support her blog posts. My blog, Movies of Soul has also been inspired from the design of her blog, and she has helped me with quite some insight into buying a domain at WordPress and related stuff. I hope to continue receiving the same inspiration 🙂

Purba @ Reverie of Purba has been a constant inspiration for me with her comments, and I have bought and read her book, The Hidden Letters from Amazon; and despite it not being my genre at all, liked it and the characters in it were very interesting. She has also written another book, Walking in the Streets of Love and Destiny; it feels very good to have an author reading your blogs and supporting you, doesn’t it? If you ask me, it surely does. I wish her best of luck for the upcoming works 🙂

Simran @ My Friendship is one of my newer friends in the blogosphere, and you know that good things often happen late, but it is a thing of joy when they do. I have been reading most of her poems, and loved the one called Lost Peace a lot. I have read a good number of her poems and hoping to read a lot more. What surprised me the most was she is a fan of Nazriya Nazim and she has watched a lot of movies/music with Nivin Pauly too – that was more than just surprising; her comment on my Om Shanti Oshana review was a welcome twist 😀

Kokila @ Sunshine n Blue Clouds has been a frequent commenter on my blogs, and is the one who has given me the most comments from Blogspot. I have always wondered how many people will comment on my blog from Blogspot; well, she is the one who does that the most, and has inspired me to comment back on the Blogspot blogs which were not among my priorities as I was stuck with my WordPress community for quite a long time. Along with her wonderful Haiku collection, she also writes awesome book reviews. I hope to continue being inspired from her blog 🙂

Maitreni @ The Style Symphony is the recent winner of the contest “My First Expert” from Godrej and it is amazing victory considering the number of posts and bloggers who were involved in the contest – it was much more than the usual number. The team of her and her mom has provided some of those nice posts at this place. I consider this winning post itself as their best ever My Inexpert Mother; My First Expert Mom! I wish her all the best for her future wins as contests are many and she is writing so well; and also thank her for her frequent visits to my blog.

Deeshani @ Inner Thoughts of a Taciturn made it to my blogger network and vice versa, quite recently. I have loved reading her poetry and among them, I have had special admiration for this poem, Rickshaw Driver. Then, Shades of Glee is another poetic work from her which I have enjoyed a lot. Recently providing me with the Sunshine Award, she has been the inspiration that came late, but was here with some of the best blog posts.

Bindu @ Movie Reviews by Bindu Cherungath is one movie blogger whom I have been very happy about meeting through the blogging universe. Her Om Shanti Oshana review has been my favourite since then. I have also loved to read her views on many other movies including Ormayundo Ee Mukham, Ivide and Premam. Her review on Iyobinte Pusthakam is something which I completely agree on, and it felt extra good to read the opinion there! This paragraph is to the movie love!

I’m blogging for #YouMakeMeWIN to honour a blogger who has influenced me and deserves to be nominated at WIN15.

***The image used in this blog post is also taken from the WIN15 activity from BlogAdda. #YouMakeMeWIN

TeNy

Bloggers and Friends

I have written about a number of bloggers who have been very helpful and have managed to be a lot inspirational during my time in the blogging world. Actually, I have only shared three names with my previous three posts, and I have a lot more of them to talk about. So, I will share five other names and their blogs here, and then I will be left with one more post to write about the rest of my blogger friends. I am actually working on another big list, but now I am sharing something about five people who have inspired me.

#1. I managed to find Raja Reviews and its owner Raja Saravanan at a time when I was wandering around the blogging world aimlessly, or rather it was me and Movies of the Soul which was found. Among the first few friends from the blogging community, he has been a big technical help for my blogging situation, and continues to be so. Buying a domain for Movies of the Soul actually meant about an hour of talk on the phone. He has introduced me to his new place for movie lovers, Flixpack, which you might want to have a look at.

#2. Anoop is another person for whom I need to share some space here. Tranquil Yet Alive is another one of those blogs which go quite some way back in my blogging timeline. He is also my favourite Kerala traveler and I hope to accompany him on a trip. He is the second most frequent commenter on this blog as well as Movies of the Soul. He has been here, and also there, most of the time being the first one to comment on a post. His comments have been a frequent inspiration for me to write more, and the Vampire Bat and the Vampire Owl have acknowledged the same.

#3. A Few Handpicked Things in Life from Ranjini is the closest available blog to any of my blogs. That would be a total of 23.9km as the distance between the locations of the blogs, and those two towns of Kerala. I have taken some extra interest for Game of Thrones from her, and did manage to watch all the five episodes; that inspiration also worked very well and I have accepted her GoT guidance. I am particularly interested in her new 100 Happy Days writings, and she is also the one with the fifth most comments on this blog and the sixth on Movies of the Soul.

#4. Shweta and her blog Sunshine and Zephyr have been another strong source of inspiration for me. I have loved to read her posts about Iceland more than the rest, and there were a number of quote-related posts which have recently caught my attention, through which she has shared quotes from her upcoming novel – she has also been there at my blog with comments, the earliest going back to the time when I had just started writing here. She has also left me with the Sunshine Award just recently as you might have noticed earlier.

#5. Harsha might be the first Indian blogger to have visited and commented on my blog regularly. All Resource Updates might be the first Indian blog which I had followed, and it started at a time when I did nothing at any place which boosted my blogging and had almost no contact with other Indian bloggers. He let me know that I really need to get my blog accepted at these websites to make things work better. Even though he has been less active on his blog for some time, he has been more active as of now.

The list is incomplete as expected; there are many names which I would love to add, and more of them to come in the final post of this series. There are many bloggers from outside India too, but this activity is limited to Indian bloggers, and so I have kept this blog post in this way. I take this opportunity to appreciate the help and motivation which have been provided by these five bloggers. Thank you all for the support, and #YouMakeMeWIN!

I’m blogging for #YouMakeMeWIN to honour a blogger who has influenced me and deserves to be nominated at WIN15.

***The image used in this blog post is also taken from the WIN15 activity from BlogAdda. #YouMakeMeWIN

TeNy

Celebrating Inspiration V3.0

I have blogged much more this year, and about seventy percent of the posts on this blog were written and posted this year, that too with half an year still to go. In the 179 days which have passed so far, I have did more than 180 posts. I have only recently got to 250 posts, and a lot of it has come in the last six months or so. From December 10 last year, I had decided to speed up things, and I have made sure that there is no day without a blog post or two.

I was tired with all these by April. March had something special for me with winning the BlogAdda contest “The World Remade” for the India Today Conclave at Delhi. March twelfth, my birthday was spent in three cities, Cochin, Mumbai and Delhi, and the month was a great one. But it came back down in April, and things came down further with nothing happening with my life expect for eating and sleeping. The energy for blogging was slowly disappearing.

The credit for bringing the inspiration back goes to Archana, who blogs at Drishti: The Gaze with her husband Desh, and has provided some of the most interesting ideas on a wide variety of topics. I haven’t seen a better blog with a husband and wife writing together, ever. There is a lot to learn from the blog, and the way in which it goes on with its ideas inspiring and spreading knowledge is worth the applause. She has been on my IB list of bloggers for more time, but we have been friends on Facebook from April.

A lot of people whom I know are not aware of how much I blog and there are people around me who think it is a waste of time. Well, sometimes I think that it is very clear for them that I am wasting my time not just in life, but also with the blogs, as someone has brought to my attention during my recent visit to my ancestral home. The advice is always to stop doing the blogging and do anything else. So, the need for inspiration only increases day by day. It is where Archana has been helpful in the last few months.

What Archana and Desh have been writing about at their blog has been very much thought-provoking, and when it is not doing that job, it is inspiring the other bloggers to write more and more. I have been going a little bit lazy about blogging for some time, especially because at one point, I had extra articles left in my computer to post for the next one week or two. Every time when I seem to go towards the end of my collection, I think about not writing, but Drishti and its frequency of posting has been a big inspiration.

Archana has been among the most frequently commenting bloggers on this blog, and in the last two months only, she has become the one with the third most highest comments on my posts. She is also the only person whose blog is not hosted on WordPress to comment with this high frequency. She has also been always there being among the first people to promote my blog in more than one platform. Now, it is some fine support which does motivate a lot to blog more.

She has also been there to clear those blogging doubts. She was also the one to introduce me to Blogmint, and she has told me that it will be very useful to me in my long blogging run. My favourite post from her is a Haiku, titled Beauty and the Beast, and her Haiku and Short Story Collection has been inspiring me to keep writing. The whole vampire team has acknowledged the same. I have also been inspired by the travel related posts from Desh on the Breath-taking Natural Wonders despite traveling so less these days – I rarely see such clarity on blogs 🙂

I’m blogging for #YouMakeMeWIN to honour a blogger who has influenced me and deserves to be nominated at WIN15.

***The image used in this blog post is also taken from the WIN15 activity from BlogAdda. #YouMakeMeWIN

TeNy

Liebster: Extra Soul Food

I am really glad to be presented with Liebster award for The Tea Cerebration(s). It is Gowthama Rajavelu @http://creatikaa.blogspot.com who has provided me with this wonderful award. He also blogs at http://snapometer.blogspot.in which you need to visit 😉

I accept this Liebster Award (http://creatikaa.blogspot.com/2015/04/liebster-award-acceptance-and.html) and shall nominate my choice of bloggers 🙂

What are 10 random facts about you?

1. Whenever I search for a job, I feel like it is against all hopes.
2. I have more doubts about life than it can be imagined by a single person, unless proven wrong.
3. I do thinking as a part-time absurdist 😀
4. I love the season of monsoon.
5. I really need to play Age of Empires multiplayer; so someone should join me 😀
6. Game of Thrones is my most recent addiction.
7. I love my new Asus Zenfone.
8. Simona the kitty is the best kitten that I have ever known.
9. I wish there was more awesome dosa in the world.
10. The win for the post The Vision has surely brought some positive opinion on the jobless me outside the blogging world for may be the first time 😀

Where does your blogging inspiration come from?
I write because of whatever comes to my mind from anywhere, at any moment of time.

Is your blogging simply a hobby? What kind of dreams do you have for it?
Yes, it is a lot like a hobby. I hope to do something good with my life and this is the only way in front of me now.

What is your support system like and who are your biggest supporters?
I think that it keeps changing.

What do you enjoy most about blogging?
That relief after writing down what I had to say.

What do you do when you feel overwhelmed with too many tasks at once?
I keep doing them without thinking about anything else.

What would you do with a large sum of money given to you?
I would travel, starting the journey from Romania or Spain.

What was one of the most moving books or movies you have ever read or seen?
Dogville starring Nicole Kidman.

Where would you like to see yourself in the next couple of years?
At Dracula Castle, Romania.

Do you have a bucket list? Name 5 things on that.
Please read the recently posted Bucket List with 5 things.

What is your single best piece of advice for someone starting out in the blogging world?
Forget about everything else and just write.

And here goes my list of Nomination

Sahithya (http://sahisridhar.blogspot.in)

Roohi (http://roohibhatnagar.com)

Abhijit (http://gadgetgarrio.com)

Najm (http://angellicfrenzy.blogspot.in)

Ankita (http://makeachange1.wordpress.com)

Attention Nominees: Here are the instructions:

Nominees, it is your turn to answer the questions and award some blogs if you are willing. Answer the above questions in your own blog post and then nominate some of your favorite blogs. You can either make up a new list of questions for your nominees or just use the same.

TeNy

Tea for Inspiration

It has always been about the tea. Throughout my life, I have believed in the power of tea which has worked like the elixir of life for more than one occasion. Even this blog itself is carved out of the same stone of belief. We have heard it more related to our Prime Minister than anybody else. The drink which is known to mortals as tea, has changed too many lives. It has had a very significant role in my life, and there has been so much of tea each and every day.

This brings us back to the man whom this post is all about, Vijayan – he has had more travel experience than any of us by selling tea at Kochi. He has witnessed more variety in those landscapes and has set foot in more nations than I might ever manage to visit. The first time I heard about the journeys of him and his wife, I wondered if I can ever come close to those journeys in my entire life. The story of the man also gets a mention in the Malayalam movie How Old Are You.

So, here is the man who sells tea, but is just that elixir of life that he is providing? He is giving us hope, and a direct transfer for the realization that we have to go chase our dreams no matter how much limitations are there around us. It is not the limitations which define us, but how we manage to overcome them and chase our dreams, and it is a message well provided. It is the man’s spirit that we can take home; not for today or tomorrow, but forever.

Sometimes, it is all about seizing the moment and not worrying about what can happen in the future or what all factors can become the big villains in a later stage of our lives. It was never meant to be about being better than the rest each and every day, or about making the most money – it has always been about following your heart and doing what you think will be the bliss, and this man has done just that. There is no room for denial here.

People might stop travelling at an age which gets close to the seventies, but not this man for sure. There is no age for dreams; they can just fly as long as those wings are not cut off. The problem about being a dreamer in one’s own way is that people will come up with all wrong ideas about the person. They want to dream about all luxuries, but the true dreams are personal and not defined by the society. Our dreams should be ours alone, and it is to be no territory for others to do some random inception.

It might never be too late for us, and never should we be pulled back by the limitations. There is only one life and it belongs to us – as Lord Alfred Tennyson says in “Ulysses”:
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

There is something about #WillOfSteel. Sometimes, a few people are just credited with the same because it seems to be so for a certain number of people from a distance. But I would vote for Vijayan on any day. It is not because of any other reason, but for his will to go through a path which would be considered impossible by any average person at this part of the world. He decided to make the decision, and it was to make the right choice, worrying not of the limitations or any possible problem in future.

I’m voting for Vijayan’s #WillOfSteel and blogging on BlogAdda to help him get felicitated and eventually enabled by JSW.

***The image used in this blog post is from the BlogAdda page related to the same.

TeNy

FPFS1: Wars of the World

Vampire Owl: Why did you teleport me here? I thought we would be travelling through India.

Vampire Bat: Isn’t it because William Shakespeare’s work, Henry VI, Part 3 Act 1, Scene 2 is set here? I can smell history and literature here.

Uncle Dracula: No, it is because I am going to use this imagery of the ruins as a base for what I am going to say. I can’t say this at most of the historical monuments in India because some people will consider me as an anti-nationalist at one place and some others will consider me against their religion at another place. This is more of a safe place and it is rather a civil war area. So, I can talk about this in peace.

Vampire Owl: Okay, then. Lets come to the point. My zombie minions are waiting. There are big plans for the weekend.

Uncle Dracula: I am speaking about your owlification procedure. Do you really need that? It is more like a war. We have our own vampire divisions among us, and being an extremist is not the right thing. Be a moderate. It is in our blood, as extremism is for the humans, and many other groups like werewolves. See how the humans have been going through their wars. See the remains of this battle or any of those meaningless things of hatred that the humans have committed, and they don’t even live forever.

Vampire Bat: Humans have been caught in their web of hatred for centuries. They will only kill each other for one reason or the other. When they don’t have religion, they will only find another reason. It has been going on through centuries as we have seen them.

Vampire Owl: But I am planning to save the world through a superior owl ideology.

Uncle Dracula: It is exactly the same as all those war-mongers say. There is no superior ideology which you can force into others through violence. Anything that is spread through violence cannot boast to be the right thing.

Vampire Bat: And the shedding of blood; it is the waste of our elixir of life, don’t you realize that feeling?

Uncle Dracula: If they like your ideology, they will follow you. For now, you seem like that person who forces your religion up-on others through swords, guns, daggers, dynamites and bombs. Don’t ever do that being part of the vampire family.

Vampire Bat: And stop trying to add special owl worship by spreading the idea that owls were the first creatures on Earth. That won’t sell.

Vampire Owl: What? Who told you that?

Vampire Bat: It was the Vampire Crocodile. He saw you installing a bronze statue of an owl with a sword on the eastern side of the Werewold prayer centre.

Vampire Owl: He is everywhere! One day, I am going to take him to Lake Placid.

Uncle Dracula: This is not about him; this is about you and our community. On this place where the Battle of Wakefield occured on 30 December 1460, I want you to take the pledge that you will never go extreme like the humans, and that never will you try to go for owlification again. I request that you never go for violence which can devastate the name of the vampire kind and make them seem as terrible as the humans. On this place where Richard, 3rd Duke of York, a great-grandson of King Edward III had fallen, you will take the oath of peace and non-violence.

Vampire Owl: Can I just do that tomorrow? Today is Good Friday, a holiday.

Vampire Bat: I see that he wants to start the war today itself after you enter your coffin.

Uncle Dracula: Right now, and you know that I don’t count days. I have lived in a coffin for so long without thinking about the days of no significance which passed through my immortality.

Vampire Owl: Okay, I take the oath in the name of our vampire elders not to be a violent extremist who goes for war and bring shame to the vampire-kind. Sounds good?

Uncle Dracula: I don’t like the way you said it, but I still want to believe that you can keep that oath.

Vampire Bat: Can we just go through this historical site, please?

Uncle Dracula: Why not? Lets add another chapter to our immortality lessons.

I have been tagged by Maniparna to take part in the Five Photos Five Stories (FPFS) challenge. This challenge works like: You post pictures for five consecutive days (with possible discounts like sometimes changing to alternate days :D) and attach posts to it, fiction, poem or short write-up. It can be anything that suits your taste. I am also tagging my wonderful blogger friend, Ranjini on Day One, as part of the challenge, and I will tag a new person on Day Two. 

***The image used in this blog post was taken by me on my Sony Cybershot DSC-W310 camera.

TeNy

A Blog Tour Award

I have been nominated by Prakash Hegade for the Blog Tour Award. This is something different from the rest, and therefore has a special and unique value. Thank you for this nice gift on the week of my birthday!!! 🙂 https://itsphblog.wordpress.com/awards/blog-tour-award

Rules:

1. Pass the tour on up to four other bloggers.
2. Give them the rules and a specific Monday to post.
3. Answer four questions about your creative process which lets other bloggers and visitors know what inspires you to do what you do.
Q1. WHAT I’M I WORKING ON AT THE MOMENT ?
Q2. HOW DOES MY WORK DIFFER FROM OTHERS IN MY GENRE ?
Q3. WHY DO I WRITE OR CREATE WHAT I DO ?
Q4. HOW DOES MY WRITING/CREATIVE PROCESS WORK ?
4. Compose a one-time post on a specific Monday (date given from your nominator).

1. Four Bloggers i would like to pass on:

Maniparna: http://maniparna5002.wordpress.com
Namrata: http://namratakumari.blogspot.in
Ranjini: http://rangelz.wordpress.com
Shibu: http://shibumathewn15.wordpress.com

2. Give them the rules:

Rules are layered out. I would like to propose the dates: 30th March 2015, 6th April 2015 or 13th April 2015 (Feel free to vary here and there)

3. Answer four questions:

Q1. WHAT I’M I WORKING ON AT THE MOMENT ?
I am working on the next episode of story for my fiction blog with two different timelines at http://divineepic.wordpress.com.

Q2.HOW DOES MY WORK DIFFER FROM OTHERS IN MY GENRE ?
We are all different from each other because we are separate entities, and we are bloggers with newer ideas every day!

Q3. WHY DO I WRITE OR CREATE WHAT I DO ?
I write this way because it defines my world, and it is more of a reflection of my thoughts and the incidents of my life. 

Q4. HOW DOES MY WRITING/CREATIVE PROCESS WORK ?
I just think and write. Something always comes up.

4. Compose a one time post:

I was given the date: 16th/23rd March 2015. Here is the post!

Click here for Airtel Recharge!
Click here for any Mobile Recharge at Paytm!
Click here for Flipkart!
Click here for Snapdeal!

The Versatile Happens

On this beautiful day, I remember another award and feel very happy to have received The Versatile Blogger Award from Anita (https://icecandy16blog.wordpress.com) 🙂 I write this down while seeing a picture of Roger Federer holding an Indian cricket team t-shirt with the Bleed Blue hashtag – I love that feeling 😀

Thank you Anita for this wonderful award: (https://icecandy16blog.wordpress.com/2015/02/14/my-first-blogging-award).

Rules of the award:

Display the award on your blog.
Thank the person who nominated you.
Share 7 facts about yourself.
Nominate 15 blogs.
Link your nominee’s blogs.

7 facts about myself:

I believe that the Valentine’s Day is becoming more and more fake every year.
I have found the early morning, best time to read and study.
I can’t stand the dubbed versions of English movies on television channels.
I need more hours on a day – may be I should travel to Venus and claim them.
I believe that opinions should be respected and nobody has the right to abuse in return.
I feel that a movie experience is more personal than any other.
I support American Sniper for the Best Movie at the Oscars this year.

The 15 bloggers:
Anna (http://filmgrimoire.wordpress.com)
Natasha (http://allizzwell.net)
Jaideep (http://pebbleinthestillwaters.in)
Shibu (http://shibumathewn15.wordpress.com)
Sandeep (http://www.sandeeppatil.co.in)
Sanjeet (http://sanjeetv.wordpress.com)
Leo (http://leocraven.com)
Courtney (http://cinemaaxis.com)
Dan (http://dtmmr.com)
Indah (http://indahs.wordpress.com)
Susanne (http://susanneleist.wordpress.com)
Danny (https://dannybreslin.wordpress.com)
Bikramjit (http://mannbikram.wordpress.com)
Faith (http://faithsimone.wordpress.com)
Mark (http://mrmarakai.wordpress.com)

Enjoy your blogging… 🙂

A Hat-trick in Inspiration

This is the time for The Very Inspiring Award, for the third time for The Tea Cerebrations, and we should be having a lot of tea on the hat-trick occasion in huge cups 😀

I was nominated by Rekha (http://rekhaaa.wordpress.com) this time, and the fact remains that it was me who was more inspired 😉 Thanks to her for making this three in a row, something that usually needs a penalty in the case of football 😀 (http://rekhaaa.wordpress.com/2015/01/12/1338/)

The rules:
1. Display the award logo
2.  Link back to the person who nominated you
3.  State 7 things about yourself
4.  Nominate 15 other bloggers for this award and link to them.

The seven things about me:
1. I believe that I am living in the wrong time period and require a time machine.
2. I don’t feel that the end of the world is a bad thing, because there is equality in death.
3. I support Asterix for the President of Earth 😀
4. I affirm Honda’s superiority in engine 😀
5. I have bad teeth, and even had awesome root canal.
6. My favourite ice cream is of Blackcurrant flavour, followed by Orange and Pineapple.
7. I hope that one day, I will be the old gamer again 😉

The Fifteen nominated: 
1. Dan (http://dtmmr.com)
2. Pallavi (http://palulife.blogspot.sg)
3. Ananya (http://www.ananyatales.com)
4. Sakshi (http://www.sakshinanda.com)
5. Sandhya (https://indfused.wordpress.com)
6. Kokila (http://sunshineandblueclouds.blogspot.in)
7. Prathi (http://prathi-pat.blogspot.com)
8. Ritesh (http://riteshmokasana.wordpress.com)
9. Kamila (http://spicyroad.com)
10. Rohit (http://www.rohitthebest.blogspot.in)
11. Razia (http://noorsrecipes.com)
12. Mohan (http://advocatemmmohanaksharaalu.wordpress.com)
13. Gaurab (http://www.processingcreativity.com)
14. Saru (http://www.sarusinghal.com)
15. Svetlana (http://maverickbird.com)

Have a great year and drink more tea 😀

Inspiration: Episode Two

Shweta Dave (http://www.sunshineandzephyr.com) has nominated this blog for the Very Inspiring Blogger Award. This is the second time for this award and for any award on this blog (http://www.sunshineandzephyr.com/2015/01/happy-new-year-and-very-inspiring-blog-award/). Thank you, Shweta 🙂

Hoping that this kind of awards are a nice start, I have kept a page separate for the same, which can be accessed from the top bar of the blog 😀 (https://theteacerebration.wordpress.com/blog-awards/). Shweta has some inspiring stuff at her blog too, where I am a regular reader.

The Very inspiring Blogger Award rules:

• Display the award on your blog

• Link back to the person who nominated you

• State 7 things about yourself

• Nominate 15 bloggers and link to them

Seven things about myself:

1. I support Sanju Samson as the next wicket keeper of the Indian Cricket Team.
2. I wish to visit the four Italian cities Rome, Venice, Florence and Milan as soon as possible 😀
3. The farthest I have traveled is to Glasgow, Scotland.
4. Among the non-Keralite cities to which I have traveled in India, I love Kolkata the most.
5. I don’t like my chances of getting a job.
6. I believe that I am going to get hit by a reckless driver when on road, sooner or later.
7. I have discovered many reasons to be a pessimist 😀

Fifteen blogger friends for this award:

1. Simon (http://simonsayswatchthis.wordpress.com)
2. Ulkar (http://moviemovesme.com)
3. Moon (http://footlooseforever.com)
4. Jatin (http://wanderingjatin.wordpress.com)
5. Lorrie (http://lorriebowden.com)
6. Kalpana (http://www.kalpanaawrites.com)
7. Lynn (http://backtowalking.wordpress.com)
8. Harsha (http://allresourceupdates.wordpress.com)
9. Leyla (http://darkpink.wordpress.com)
10. Risty (http://garasi82.com)
11. Anita (http://icecandy16blog.wordpress.com)
12. Christy (http://poeticparfait.com)
13. Philip (http://pmespeak.com)
14. Nitin (http://greybmusings.wordpress.com)
15. Seema (http://travelholid.wordpress.com)

Have a wonderful year ahead! 🙂

Tea Cerebration 2014

The WordPress.com stats helper vampires with the aid of zombie minions and the little goblins prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog. I would like to thank Maniparna for being the biggest commenter on my blog which started this year, with about fifty more than everyone else and Namrata for being the very first commenter on The Tea Cerebrations 🙂 Also thanks to the others who have supported me, especially those in The Hall of Fame and all who have given a comment or a like for this blog so far 🙂 You can also spend some time to read the movie year in review at Movies of the Soul. Happy New Year, everyone – keep being awesome and drink a lot more tea 😀

Here’s an excerpt:

A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 6,800 times in 2014. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 6 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

That Aroma of Tea

There is no denying the fact that our travel is for the sake for visiting tourist destinations and having a peek at those places where we haven’t gone before and taking snaps to remember the journey. But some of those journeys are about smell, the fragrance that rises above what is visible, and makes us feel like never before, and I talk about such a journey here which stayed in my mind due to the fragrance factor.

There are not many things that have interested me more than the fragrance that the tea provides, even as it is a known fact that there will be more talks about the smell of coffee. The fragrance of tea leaves have been something that has inspired me, and that is evident from the name and header of this blog. I have never really left any doubt about the same either, it has been clear to me since an early childhood visit to Munnar in Kerala.

Can’t wait to enter and have the much needed tea 😀

This is where my journey to Ceylon comes to the picture. The Sri Lankan journey happened in July 2010 which started with a fire on the flight which I boarded. But that was never really the beginning to the wonderful journey, which actually started somewhere higher in altitude – no not Kandy, much higher; and that should be the city of Nuwara Eliya as we travelled from Kandy to that place which was relatively unknown to us.

Our bus was going between the tea plantations until it stopped near a building which had a certain amount of beauty and could boast of having a scenic background that is close enough to a traveller’s paradise. I had decided at that moment that Nuwara Eliya was to be something special for my mind, forever. The guide brought us into the building which had that smell which filled the soul like nothing ever before. It was the fragrance of the tea leaves.

It might not be what most of people would wish to smell, but I found the fragrance like nothing ever before, even as I have been to tea factories before at least twice. It is like heaven to be at such a place, and the description of tea production never really caught my ears as this fragrance captured myself as a whole. There is beauty in the fragrance of tea, something which enchants and inspires us. It had transformed into a beautiful land of awesome tea.

There was the need to taste tea, and this opportunity only came later after minutes of living in that fragrance, hoping for the drink to grace my tongue; it was finally achieved by a cup of Orange Pekoe tea and one of the finest I have ever had, and the ambiance which was there for having that cup was simply mesmerizing. I wished I could stay there forever, but that was one of the shortest time periods spend anywhere during that journey. The only dose of happiness that we brought back was related to the Ceylon Tea packets which we brought home and a few photos which I keep as my wallpaper.

Who would not want to have tea here? Plus the aroma

This blog entry is in relation to the #InspireAFragrance contest by Godrej aer: http://www.godrejaer.com/ – the contest was to inspire with an evocative travel experience to create the first crowd-inspired fragrances for Godrej aer. It always feels good to have one of such a thing for our cars, doesn’t it? Even if it is a new experience with the same, it never hurts to try. The fragrance is very important, as it is something which has become an unavoidable part of our lives, even related to the food and drinks.

TeNy