Requirement for a Dream

We all have our dreams; sometimes we keep them there, not wishing to get it out of that stage due to the high impossible nature, but there are those other dreams which we have no plan to keep there as dreams. We need to get hold of the second type, even though there are times when we are not really sure if they can actually go to the next stage. Maybe those related to competitive examinations and getting a better job can go on forever, but with those related to travel, we do have a certain amount of power to accomplish them.

There will always be the factors which try to keep us away though, and they might be stronger; still there will be a time when we just have to go. I have had mine, but I haven’t let them go, and I haven’t even tried to make them happen yet. I have my travelling list on hold right now, and I hope to keep reminding myself of the same, so that they don’t disappear right into one of those nightmares that I have during those darkest of nights. My dreams about travel go a long way back; and they are deep in those books, those belonging to the horror genre, beginning and ending with Bram Stoker’s Dracula, but not limited there.

Dracula and the rest of the Gothic: There is a certain call!

As I have told a good number of people already, the one dream related to travel, that I have had since my childhood days was to visit the Dracula Castle; not just to reach there, but to get to the destination after wandering through the Carpathian Mountains. I have read many other works which relates to the Gothic horror, located in places which are more appropriate to be called the “land of the dead”, but the Carpathians stayed, not just with the legend of the world’s best known vampire, but also with its natural beauty.

There are the locations which can make a normal person happy; that should include Paris being the City of Love, New York as the City of Skyscrapers, Rome known to be the Eternal City, and all those sobriquets that came with these – then there are the rest of the places in North America and Europe which should be second home to some of our relatives, the grand cities with huge shopping places in the Middle East, the places of pilgrimage, the frequently featured places of natural beauty and the rest which have made into news for one reason or the other.

Then there are those places, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand – it is as if everyone wants to go to at least one of the three nations; most of my friends have, if I go back and read flashback memories of us talking; and I have also been to two of the three already. Then, we know which are those few cities around here that everyone visits frequently – those names are even better known to the crowd. But they won’t make it to my priority list, as I haven’t been in that usual “normal list” for a long time; for I have evolved enough to get my name darkened so much that no sign of it remains there. This means that I will have to travel alone? That would be my pleasure.

So, with the lack of existence in that list of people, I have managed to get into another list, and instead of those usually preferred trips, here is the journey to the historical Bran Castle to which the legend is associated, and it will have to be one trip through those beautiful lands. The imposing Corvin Castle and Poenari Castle, the two other castles which are also connected to the legend, will also require a visit, because the dream is never limited; it is something that is spread over all these. The great castles will have tales to tell, all of which, I will be very happy to listen to, for I also have my own stories to tell in return.

All journeys need a big turn like this one even between all the beauty.

I have hoped to be there within that dark fantasy world which I had dreamt about; I have wished to be part of that special world of the unknown which was beyond human understanding, and to be part of myth and history at the same time. There was to be those days of the darker side of mysteries which go a long way beyond our knowledge – it was to make life better for me, even without that magic and that fantasy there, but is that to happen soon? Well, we will know at some point.

I am blogging about my dreams and passions for the Club Mahindra #DreamTrails activity at BlogAdda. You can get a Club Mahindra Membership to own your holidays!

***The images used in this blog post were taken by me.

TeNy

Destination: Impossible

My list of places to travel in this life has been a very long one. I have often thought about buying a new shelf to keep that list. The cities like Rome, Barcelona, Milan, Vienna, Florence, Lisbon, Venice and many others have been part of that list, along with a good number of Latin American nations. There have also been nations on the Eastern side of Asia and the South of Africa which have been in my list. But there is something about Eastern Europe and one nation in particular, which I wished to visit right from my childhood, even before I knew more about the nations, their geographical locations, capitals and the distance to be traveled from here.

I know my friends who wish to travel and settle down in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, along with those who are already there. I am the first one to make this wish here, and I made it when I was in school, and nobody knew the name of even one Eastern European nation other than Russia. I wanted to travel to Romania. Some friends thought that I wanted to travel to Rome with its Colosseum and Vatican, but that was not my priority. I wanted to see the legend, the hero and the prince of darkness, or at least what remained of the myth and history.

I have loved almost everything I have known about Romania, the most recent love related to Simona Halep, the World No.2 in Women Singles Tennis; that even lead to our cat being named after her. Coming back to the love for Dracula, the first non-Malayalam horror novel which I have ever read, Carpathians had become a grand part of my perpetual endearment towards the unexplored side, something which was to be kept away – the kid who read horror is never the lovable kid, right? It was the time when I had to read the children’s books, and there I was, reading the horror novels.

“That kid who read horror novels” – not that much of a popular tag to have at the Municipal Library of a town; it was a fair title though. Then there were people who had the shocked expression seeing me with the horror novels. I was often called Dracula in the class and I loved it so much; as I soon asked to be called that name, my classmates realized that they couldn’t make fun of me by calling me Dracula and they decided to stop addressing me so. The horror always existed with me, and the genre grew, with horror movies and then reaching my final MA English and Literature project about Vampire as a Cultural Construct.

The Carpathian Mountains should be my place to begin. I should be there alone and be the Jonathon Harker of the time, and it is something which I owe that kid who read horror novels. The Bran Castle should be the big destination as the Dracula Castle, along with Poenari Castle and Hunyad Castle making sure that the legend is truthfully followed. I have always loved the castles even outside the horror stories, and with the myth connected here, you know which is the castle which I wish to visit long before any other. The Dracula Castle is like a holy site of myths for us!

Bucharest, the capital and largest city of Romania also needs to be visited. I have found a number of interesting buildings on the pages, most significant ones being Saint Spyridon the New Church, and the architectural beauty in right there with modernity as well as those with antiquity. Another city on the list is Iasi for the Metropolitan Cathedral there. Constanța, the port city where Simona Halep is from, also makes it to my list. The other cities include Timisoara, Ploiesti, Sibiu, Craiova, Brasov, Galați and Cluj-Napoca – you search for details about a city, and you end up wishing to visit them!

Well, it is clear that I have no job as I have been learning the names of cities. I wish that my MA thesis would come to its real end during a trip to Romania, or may be I could do a Ph.D thesis there on the same topic; the journey is a wish that is never to come true, and Romania is a dream destination which is never to be added to the “visited” list. This is one destination which seems necessary for my salvation, but it is also something which I have put on another list of many impossible things. Do I need to say those six impossible things before tea? May be I do.

***The image used in this blog post was taken by me on Samsung Galaxy A5.

TeNy

Quote Challenge 3: Stoker

“It is the fault of our science that it wants to explain all; and if it explain not, then it says there is nothing to explain.”
― Dracula (Bram Stoker)

I have my classic vampire love shared between three major vampire texts, which are among the first few of its kind. John William Polidori’s The Vampyre, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla and Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The last one was the first one I read as expected, and remains the best known vampire novel of all time, giving Count Dracula that cult status that others didn’t manage to achieve. I read the first copy of Dracula in Malayalam, and it was another reason why it felt good for me when I was a child.

You won’t get the other two works in most of the other languages here, and nobody can identify a vampire better than Count Dracula. How many people know Lord Ruthven or Countess Mircalla? Well, among the people I know from here, none so far. Yes, everybody knows Dracula. Even someone who has no literacy knows Dracula. Yes, they might have different version of him for knowing in detail, but they know him anyway. So, Dracula being such a big name, it only becomes a need for me to remember a few of the quotes from the work featuring the legendary vampire.

Christopher Lee playing the Count (photo from wiki)

Coming back to the quote, where does the fault lie? What all does science want to explain these days? There is the case of logical thinking. It has lead to people asking me too many “why”s. When I wanted to take Humanities group for Plus Two, they were like who studies history and why? I gave up to that question at that time because I thought that they knew better. This idea about science being better than everything else was injected into me like a virus; I was brainwashed and I was ready to fall into that bottomless pit which had absolutely nothing for me.

When I wanted to study literature, they were like, why read so many books of fiction? I had fallen into that trap too many times, and this time, I just didn’t tell them when I joined the course. It was my escape from that question about someone doing what he or she loved the most. Nowadays, I often wonder why that question exists, as another case of using “why”. The scientific answer to life after tenth was the Science Group and the Engineering degree. They needed explanations for me studying what I liked – how logical.

Bran Castle, commonly known as the Dracula Castle (photo from wiki)

Science asks for proof for too many things, for the existence of God, spirits, soul and may be even for Simona the Kitty being a cool cat. Among all these, the last one might be the more difficult one as I have to prove it all by myself. These are the days when people are judged by their skills to boast and ride on their vanity than their goodness – now that is logical, isn’t it? Emotions are less significant, as logic is all that matters. There are things that need logic, but that doesn’t apply to everything.

Into the past, we wander into those times when taking a degree was the thing to do. With the modernity, came science and it took over the minds of the people who were so attached to materialism and they took the creativity straight out of the hearts of their children. They forced the poets, the novelists, the historians and many others to pursue science. They thought and taught their children that science will be the answer to all their problems. In the process, they never tried to see through the little eyes and took away the true skills of their children.

The procedure still continues as if there is no end. They think that there is nothing to do with the arts degree. I have heard from many people that intelligent people don’t go for arts and humanities or languages. I would like these people to join and make sure that the intelligence is shared with us. Why don’t these people just make a visit and provide us with a long lesson on our stupidity of not studying science? Well, I don’t think that they have anything new to say, because I have heard most of it in my life.

I have been nominated by Kiran, at https://drkiranacharya.wordpress.com/2015/06/19/day-three-quote-challenge, for the three day quote challenge. Thanks for the tag 🙂

Rules for the challenge:

• Post one of your favourite quotes (different quote on each day) on three days. The quote can be from your favourite book, author, or your own.
• Nominate three bloggers to challenge them.
• Thank the blogger, who nominated you.

For my day three, I nominate my blogger friends:

Harsha (https://allresourceupdates.wordpress.com)

Clementia (http://dclementia.blogspot.in)

Anita (http://icecandy16blog.wordpress.com)

And this ends the challenge.

TeNy

The Eye of Cyclops

In the Chambers of the Elder Vampires, Vampire Bat and Vampire Owl has a discussion. It wasn’t about the wars this time, but it was not a case of peace either. The chambers were listening to a different conversation. It was about the effects of the love at first sight which Vampire Owl had felt for Lady Death.

Vampire Bat: Are you sure you want to do this? Do you think that this is the right decision at this point?

Vampire Owl: Yes, I would do this for Lady Death as you would do that for her evil twin sister.

Vampire Bat: I haven’t really decided about myself. I am sure that I won’t be asked about such strange conditions in love.

Vampire Owl: You don’t understand. This is love at first sight. There is nothing ordinary about it, and instead here we have it as a thing of highest quality.

Vampire Bat: What do you mean by that? Where did you actually see her? You haven’t met Death yet.

Vampire Owl: It is kind of correct in your simple and lifeless terms, considering the fact that you are a layman in love. I am of the standard of a bishop if love is considered a religion.

Vampire Bat: It is indeed a relief that you didn’t say Pope, Lama or Patriarch. Love is not a religion even though people say that their religion is love or God is love; your love with Lady Death is surely not that. You can ask Uncle Dracula for confirmation.

Vampire Owl: This is why you should read books about love from the Imperial Vampire Library. It is about sensing her presence and making an impression. Sight is just a word which translates into sense in after-life.

Vampire Bat: You mean to say that your dearest Lady Death is blind and can only sense your presence.

Vampire Owl: Silly layman. You should be ordained into the guild of love, or you will never find Lady Death’s evil twin sister. This is why you don’t even know her name yet.

Vampire Bat: Actually, none of these is the problem. Your mission is injurious to your health. I can give you a clear warning on that. I can even get certification about the same from our analysts.

Vampire Owl: I am very good at missions. I have accomplished so much in my career with one mission after another.

Vampire Bat: Yes, but not related to returning with an eye of a cyclops. You will be going through hostile territory. To add to that, there are two problems related to the same. One is that you don’t know if the creature exists. The second is that if they do, a cyclops got only one eye and if you take it you are going to make it very angry.

Vampire Owl: There is this area north of the Dark Elf Terrain and west of the Blood Merchant Ports. I will have to go through the Graves of the Undead, but I have a bag of bones and it will be okay to make a passage. The area is called Horn of Cyclops. I will find the creatures there. When I do, it won’t matter if they are angry, happy or depressed.

Vampire Bat: You are not even going to make it through the Free Zombie Territory. Do you know that a mythical cyclops is not supposed to have a horn, and the name could be just because the area is shaped like that? The place is ruled by tribal chieftains. You are going to be caught in the middle of nowhere.

Vampire Owl: May be. But it is love at first sight, or sense. I have to give it a try. This is one of those things to do in order to meet Lady Death; she appears in case of victory and we can get to her in case of a defeat which is death.

Vampire Bat: Of what use is a dead Vampire Owl even to love? And most of all, what is the use to Uncle Dracula? You are not even going to be reborn again as a zombie if you die in the North.

Vampire Owl: You cannot stop my destiny with such strange words. My determination is bigger than all that.

Vampire Bat: You should still inform Uncle Dracula about the same and find the right moment.

Vampire Owl: I shall be doing the same. I will appoint Vampire Alligator in my place when I am not here.

Vampire Bat: But Vampire Crocodile is the third in command and the fourth most experienced person of the team.

Vampire Owl: Yes, but he and his stories of Lake Placid have been getting into my nerves. I am giving punishment transfer for him to the borders around the Werewolf Kingdom.

Vampire Bat: Not a fair decision as usual! I suggest you go through the sea then, around the Old Vampire Isle.

Vampire Owl: I shall give it some thought. The first thing to do is to say good bye to Uncle Dracula and make sure that he agrees to my points enough to grant me leave.

Vampire Bat: So be it then! So much for what follows the love at first sight, sense or whatever.

[The chambers were back to sensing the silence with no vampire presence].

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

This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda.

TeNy

An Owlish Love Failure

A month after appointing the first ever vampire psychiatrist part-time in the castle, Uncle Dracula decided to provide him with only the second appointment of his vampire career, to treat the Vampire Owl and get him out of his depression with the support of Vampire Bat. After all, the situation in the other world was rather threatening and he needed all the help that he could manage to get.

Vampire Owl: I am feeling a certain amount of panic. Is this the panic room? Then why is it that Jodie Foster never came? Is it because she is not acting much now? She was there in Elysium, right?

Uncle Dracula [while leaving]: See, this is why we need immediate treatment. If you need anything, ask the Vampire Bat. I will be outside letting others know that he has lost his mind, and getting more of the team here for support.

Psychiatrist: Okay, you can start now, Mr. Vampire Owl.

Vampire Owl: I waited for an eternity, but she never came. Her neighbour and best friend told me otherwise, but she never really came.

Psychiatrist: Okay, I completely understand the feeling. So, you just had a love failure. I have treated many such cases.

Vampire Owl: No, there is more than that. It is a long story. I am writing a book “An Owlish Love Failure: The Autobiography of a Missing Vampire Owl“. Can I talk about it in detail?

Psychiatrist: Yes, but please try to make it as short as possible. It is a topic of interest, but I have things to do.

Vampire Owl: It was the best time of my life, and I was only getting more and more awesome. Do you know how much I have tried? Do you even realize how far I have gone? I jumped into the five oceans, put my head into a werewolf’s lair, stole a plate of brain biriyani from a zombie, leaped in front of speeding centaurs, kicked a high elf on his head, took some necromanium from the necrons, tried to murder the immortals, called a witch a lich, mocked a satyr when he was training…

Psychiatrist: So, you were trying to find your lost love by going through such acts of high valour. You must be an extremely brave man.

Vampire Bat: Don’t you still get it? He was trying to commit suicide. He is talking about Lady Death, the personification of mortality’s dead end.

Psychiatrist: What? I am someone who can play with vampire minds. I know everything. Why do you think that you can advice me?

Vampire Bat: Because I am waiting in the queue. After you finish with him, you have to treat me.

Psychiatrist: Why? What is your problem? Are you all completely crazy?

Vampire Bat: I am in love with death’s evil twin sister. I am also waiting for love. So may be, you should treat me too.

Psychiatrist: I think that there is the need for shock treatment. I will just call the guards and deal with this in an easier way.

Vampire Bat: In that case, I would like to remind you of something. There is a fact which you need to know about. Our stories are incomplete. It will only be complete with the return of Lady Death and her evil twin sister. But there is something about yours. It will be complete soon enough. Do you want to hear a funny fact? The guards are not here at this time; their chapters are also closed for now.

Psychiatrist: What do you mean? This is rather strange.

Vampire Owl: It is us who will close your story. Do you remember what you did to the last vampire who came to you for treatment? Can you recollect how many normal people you have declared mentally unstable? You do have a short memory, and we are here to remind you. We shall give you the reminder that you are fake.

Psychiatrist: No, wait! I declare you all mentally unstable! I play with human minds, and I am going to venture into the subconscious, unconscious…

Vampire Owl: Stay unconscious, as the story continues. This part of the program is sponsored by the vampire team.

[Power failure]

Voices: This is why we bite people! All hail the team!

Uncle Dracula: Make sure that you don’t finish his story; keep it incomplete. There might be some scope for the future.

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

TeNy

In the Waiting Room

The Vampire Bat and The Vampire Owl waited at the Old Castle Tower which faced the Bloody Waters Bay. They watched as a number of smaller ships joined the Great Vampire Armada from distant lands, and riders on dark horses arrived from the other side which formed a long path. It was transformed into the unofficial vampire waiting room. They waited and waited, and they did nothing else.

Vampire Owl: I have waited for so long. There might be no hope. Vampire Crocodile would have decided to quit very long ago.

Vampire Bat: May be we can wait a little longer. This old castle tower is abandoned anyway and we have no other job.

Vampire Owl: But she was supposed to come much earlier. This has been like an eternity.

Vampire Bat: She has to come all the way from those distant lands. We have to wait as much as we can.

Vampire Owl: I see horses approaching with black banners. Is it her?

Vampire Bat: I think that it is a funeral procession. It should be for the vampire who took a bullet or two in the name of love for that high elf girl, but forgot that it was made of silver and dipped in garlic.

Vampire Owl: There are strange things that people do for the ladies when in love, I see. Yet, we are actually doing nothing by sitting here.

Vampire Owl: There is nothing to be done in this world.

Vampire Bat: Which is why we are waiting here to change our lives forever.

Uncle Dracula: There is no use in waiting. She is not going to come; not today and not tomorrow or day after tomorrow.

Vampire Owl: He is so pessimistic. Why is he talking like that and sending us to the void of perpetual depression?

Uncle Dracula: How is hoping for Lady Death to come, a case of optimism? Death has nothing optimistic about it. I don’t see any joy in the same. There is no glory in suicide if you are thinking about one. You have been marked by the shadows, and won’t have a good time in the other world.

Vampire Bat: But we are in love with Lady Death and her evil twin with long curly hair and bad teeth.

Uncle Dracula: Love? Is it what you people call it? You have been bored with life so much that you hope for death, and you sit here after reading the poems of Emily Dickinson. Get out there, have a Blood Milk Shake and get back to work.

Vampire Owl: But true love is beyond life and death. It is like a bridge between the two worlds. So many poets have talked about it. Even the great vampire court poet who was eaten by those zombies.

Uncle Dracula: Yes, but none of them were talking about you, which is why they are world famous poets now. Do you think that this melodrama is cool? It is not. We have work to do. There is a bloody vampire empire to run. There is hatred and there is chaos all around. There are wars and there is intolerance. In the middle of all these, we have to come up with a brighter example. And here, you are sitting at the top of the tower and personifying death as a lady. Let me tell you what I am going to do. I will put you both on the vampire matrimony website.

Vampire Bat: No, not the matrimonial website! It is evil even for the human standards!

Vampire Owl: Wait, there is a ship with black sails. Why is it so bloody slow? Even blood cargo ships are faster than that.

Uncle Dracula: It is the ghost ship that haunts the Spectre Peninsula. It is not of this world, but a reflection from the other dimension of the wrong which has happened years ago at the peninsula and has to be corrected in the long run. Death doesn’t own a ship anyway.

Vampire Bat: We should wait for Lady Death tomorrow then! It will be an even better day because it is a holiday.

Uncle Dracula: You work very less. So it doesn’t really matter.

Vampire Bat: Let’s go then and hope for a better tomorrow.

Vampire Owl: Yes, with lots of love for Lady Death and her evil twin sister.

This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda.

***The images used in this blog post are smaller cropped pictures of the originals from the Wikipedia pages of two Romanian castles, Poenari Castle and Corvin Castle meant as a support for the write-up only.

TeNy

FPFS3: Rise on this Day

Vampire Bat: Why are we looking down from the top of this church tower? Did the teleportation procedure fail miserably?

Vampire Owl: Actually, we are not at the top just yet. This is the tallest church in India, and also the largest. I can sense a number of human necks with lots of blood! Why didn’t we bring the special telescope?

Uncle Dracula: I have brought both of you here to talk about something. I was bringing Vampire Crocodile too, but he was too heavy and only his tail could reach here. I have sent it back to him anyway. Well, what I want to talk about is, do you know what is the specialty of this day?

Vampire Bat: Yes, a lovely Sunday, and a holiday! Even little Mavis won’t have to go the Grand Vampire Nursery, right?

Vampire Owl: Is it the birthday of the Vampire Crow, or was it the Vampire Raven? It is surely not of Vampire Hamster – he can’t remember that to tell us about it.

Uncle Dracula: Such confused vampire brethren! You have almost no sense of days, right? Today is Easter and I am going to give you the Easter message.

Vampire Owl: Vampires don’t give Easter messages. They give Halloween messages. Even the Lich Queen only give Valentine’s Day messages for the undead.

Vampire Bat: Did you just say massage? Like in Ayurveda? I need one for my neck.

Vampire Owl: Not at all! It is about the message. It doesn’t happen on Easter for the vampires. There is no such history.

Uncle Dracula: I am here to change that. We are here to let the history take a u-turn. It is time that we adapt. The world needs us, and it is a group of good and fair vampires that the human society needs to compensate the evil that they do.

Vampire Bat: Okay, so where do you start? What do you want to say?

Uncle Dracula: I am not going to do a speech here, but I ask you to forgive your enemies.

Vampire Owl: But I want to abuse them on Facebook.

Uncle Dracula: It doesn’t matter what you want to do! I am asking you to forgive them. Today is Easter. Why is it so difficult to understand?

Vampire Owl: Okay, I forget all one thousand two hundred and fifty seven of them.

Vampire Bat: I forgive my enemies too. What? Wait! How many? There are not that many people in the vampire, werewolf and zombie lands combined.

Vampire Owl: I randomly hate people. I don’t even know why. I have been reading a few Facebook posts and there is so much hatred out there, and it makes me want to join. I mean, nobody wants to spread love – it is like the eternal hate fest.

Uncle Dracula: What makes you think that the Facebook posts reflect what happens in the outside world? And what makes you believe that people actually mean what they say? They are rather ignorant or brainwashed people trying to be the anonymous bad guys on Facebook so that they can feel good. It is the advantage that they have with social networking. Some people are even worse in real life, but the reflection of the true life is never the same. But the real question is that why do you choose to believe everything that you see on Facebook just because it is there?

Vampire Bat: It is a shame that, in this modern age, people can be brainwashed into doing such things. Such a bloody abuse fest. People are not getting any better.

Vampire Owl: I still forgive them today.

Uncle Dracula: See, that is the point of Easter.

Vampire Bat: I see that the portal has opened. Lets go back to the castle.

Vampire Owl: Yes, lets go right now! I can’t wait to tell the great epic story of forgiving vampires to little Mavis as a morality tale.

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, Moon on Day Three, as part of the challenge, and I will tag a new person on Day Four. 

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

TeNy

FPFS2: Lightning Strikes

It was not the appropriate day for such a big party, but the plans were already made and people arrived too early. Mavis Dracula was already the happiest vampire on the planet. The rain had arrived with the support of lightning. The Vampire Bat looked outside from the balcony as Mavis’ birthday party was at full flow. The Vampire Owl joined him with a bottle of Coca-cola.

Vampire Owl: The food is so good here. We need to take some of these items home. I shall keep it in the refrigerator for a month and keep eating until I get fat. You can also take some of the food and give most of it to that cat of yours.

Vampire Bat: What is the point of doing that? You see how the lightning strikes.

Vampire Owl: Today is the philosophy day? Or is this like the official vampire absurdist period of time? If yes, I can come back later. By the way, have you seen that beautiful girl talking to Uncle Dracula?

Vampire Bat: No, where is she? How does she look?

Vampire Owl: No, I haven’t seen her either. I just had a feeling.

Vampire Bat: Do you know that making stupid jokes when someone is seriously looking at the lightning, which reflects one’s own mind and that person is going through an extremely powerful melancholy stage, is a terrible thing to do?

Vampire Owl: Okay, that sounds strange and too long for me, even when without my owlification job. What is the problem? Or the absence of a problem?

Vampire Bat: I am a very old unmarried Vampire Bat with no job and getting twenty four hours of pathetic advice out of every possible person; is it supposed to feel good? Do I need any other problem right now?

Vampire Owl: Dude, you are like so many centuries old. All the girls you were infatuated with are dead and buried now. Yes, we can call the Lich Queen to animate a few bones, but I don’t think that the right bones can be found from the exact graves. Plus, she can’t add the flesh to skeletons which are too old, and so it is also going to be a problem.

Vampire Bat: I am actually not that upset. Only the lightnings, weddings, baptisms, birthday parties and deaths reminds me of the same and brings depression to my soul. Then there is a little bit of the sadness when I eat tapioca biriyani, idiyappam with gravy, potato chips, appam with stew, puttu with kadala, masala dosa, poori masala, vegetable fried-rice, ghee roast, idli with sambar…..

Vampire Owl: Stop! It is like all the time! Like when there is rain or when there is no rain! Like when you are sleeping or when not sleeping! Or when you are drinking tea or not drinking tea! It is not part-time melancholy, but full-time!

Uncle Dracula [entering with an ice cream]: I know what the current problem is. You might have gone to meet our official vampire psychologist. I have no idea why you did that. He is just there as we have such a post. You needn’t take what he says seriously. He thinks that he knows everything, and that he is the master of every mind. But the truth is that, it is you who is the captain of your mind.

Vampire Bat: He said that because he studied Psychology, I will never be successful.

Vampire Owl: Because he studied Psychology, only he should be without success – how is it related to you? He is such an idiot. He thinks that he knows how we think, what we think and why we think. He also thinks that only he knows what is right and what is wrong. Does it automatically come from learning psychology?

Uncle Dracula: I once had a relative who studied the same. He said that he knows everything because he studied that subject and that everybody else has the right to remain stupid. He told me that he could predict what people were going to do and how much success that they can have. I got so irritated with him that I finally decided to drink his blood. That was an act of aggression, but he has turned good now.

Vampire Owl: The season of the bloody idiots who think that having a high-salary job as soon as possible and getting married are the only things needed in life is back. They think that they know us, but they don’t.

Vampire Bat: I wonder why they think that I haven’t ever tried. They are like I have never done anything good with my life yet. They glorify their own deeds and keep saying that only they and their children can be right.

Uncle Dracula: I see that the thunder and lightning are rather going through your mind and heart. Lets have a cup of tea and think further about it. Mavis has gone to sleep after sharpening her teeth. There is someone here that I want you to meet.

Vampire Owl: I shall have the masala tea with extra sugar.

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 awesome blogger friend, Namrata on Day Two, as part of the challenge, and I will tag a new person on Day Three. 

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

TeNy

Being Alone in the Dark

Vampire Bat and Vampire Owl awaited the return of Uncle Dracula after his meeting with his daughter who was having certain problems related to faith, belief and courage. The rest of the vampire team were playing football, and Vampire Owl was eating more and more potato chips, but Vampire Bat was really worried. Vampire Hamster was sitting idle though, as he had forgotten why he was there. The scene inside was actually of another level.

Dracula: No, Mavis. You don’t need to be afraid. I am here, and all your uncles are outside. You are the daughter of the greatest and the most feared vampire to be born or rather re-born on the surface of Earth.

Mavis Dracula: But I am really afraid of the dark, daddy.

Dracula: Let me make one thing clear, dear Mavis. You can be afraid of many things because it is quite natural, and darkness is not one of them. I don’t really get the point why you ever had to be afraid.

Mavis: Actually, I read this newspaper, and there was a night which had a terrifying incident at this capital city…

Dracula: What? How many times do I have to tell you not to read these bloody newspapers published by humans? They are full of the stupid or evil deeds that they do to harm themselves or their fellow creatures. We don’t need to learn from these people who have absolutely no mutual respect. I used to read these regularly and one day, I had a heart attack due to the overdose of human terror. Then I realized that this doesn’t really matter as I was already dead and everything became “vampire normal” again. Do you know that there are terrorists who ask for one’s religion before shooting people? It is really a new low. Did those terrorists from Somalia shoot people at night in the darkness? Do humans need to wait for darkness to fire missiles or throw bombs at others? Then, even at this age, people are afraid of darkness? What did darkness ever do to them? They have actually done all the injustice to darkness by declaring it scary and evil.

Mavis: But I have heard about bad things on darkness. I can only switch off the lights as long as you are with me. When you are not here, I sleep with the lights on. Sorry about the electricity bill, but can’t help it.

Dracula: Let me tell you something. Darkness has always existed with light coming much later, and before inventing fire, do you think people had the chance to see beyond the darkness at night? You are also going to have a better night vision soon; you are only growing up.

Mavis: I have known that bad things happen to good people at night. It is what the humans say. They talk about getting home early before the night becomes too young. I guess that night is the worst when it is at the youth stage. There might be human monsters waiting to catch us. They shall search and hunt us and say that we shouldn’t have been walking around at night.

Dracula: Walking around at night, is what we do. It is your right as much as of any human. This fear of darkness comes from a time when there was not enough light available. But we have unlimited options these days. The real darkness is in the mind of the people, and the absence of light is actually a phenomenon of the soul.

Mavis: But it is real bad at night. Darkness is like their big friend, and it supports all their evil deeds.

Dracula: That is a misconception. No, darkness is not an entity itself. There is a limit to the darkness and its shadows in our city, as it has enough lights to prevent darkness from completely taking over. It is your right to go out at night and the darkness that it provides. You don’t need anybody’s favour to walk out there in full or partial darkness. Don’t let what the others say get to you, especially those humans. They are like the worst creatures on the surface of planet Earth, or rather they have transformed into the same.

Mavis: There are shadows out there, and they won’t hunt me? What if they come after me right when I go out?

Dracula: They are the shadows of humans. Let me tell you one thing; there is evil everywhere, but to change that, some of you have to become the force. And my dear Mavis, you are more powerful than you can imagine. Have you even seen your fangs and claws? They are almost as good as mine. Do you know how fast you are, and how powerful your body is? You are better than them all, and soon, there will be no limit to your abilities. You are like the fire and the wind, all powerful. You don’t need to worry about the monsters out in the dark, but be careful about the monsters within yourself and those monsters who wear the mask of friends.

Mavis [to herself]: I am afraid of the dark, but that doesn’t define me. I have the right to go out at night with all its darkness if there is the need, and there is no bloody human with a ridiculous set of ideology who can dare to stop me.

This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda.

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

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

Land of Perpetual Summer

It was called “The Land of Perpetual Summer”. It is not that the Vampire Bat didn’t like that title for the city which did a lot for him during his middle ages. It was going to be a major vampire metro centre soon, and it was the place which had given him friends and also a certain amount of happiness. It was where he lived for most of his life, and this was also the place where Uncle Dracula conducted the interview to take him into the Team Vampire.

It was the land of summer which never ended, and even though there were some summer showers, and the monsoon which came directly through the season of summer could only make the season more beautiful without making it any lesser kind of summer. It was always summer in the land of Aluvaites, as the sun was strong and still the rivers were full. The nature was beautiful throughout the year.

He remembered the time when he had known the summer better. The season was never the favourite for the vampire kind, as it burned them like nothing else; but the Vampire Bat survived in those lands, thanks to the summer rain and the monsoon showers. The Vampire Bat was one of those rare vampires who wished for the summer season to continue to be eternal.

What the summer brought back to him was the memories of the time he spent enjoying with his friends, and they used to go on a random trip everyday, as he prepared his Honda Unicorn and just started off to an unknown world, finding a new route each and everyday. This was like the usual programme, and they had spent the summer finding new places, and exploring new areas.

There was the risk of getting burnt, but no vampire cared for the same less like the Vampire Bat. He was a wanderer of the summer season. During his childhood, he used to find happiness in those mangoes on the trees which had always waited for him. He used to go to the church and prayed for a better world. He wandered around the streets and found new meanings under the sun.

Summer was a special boost for his soul, and unlike the others of his kind, the cold ones, he couldn’t stand too much of the cold. He was physically made to be a cold one, but at the soul, he was a child of the extreme heat. He was born in March, one of the three months of fire according to the Vampire Mythology Version written by Uncle Dracula. He was among the very few of the kind.

The Vampire Bat loved this summer which never really ended, no matter how much closer it came the end. He knew that it was not his season, but the soul told otherwise. Summer was the season of happiness even when it was burning, and up-to an extend, it had the effect of purification. He believed in summer’s ability to make him feel better, and as the child of the season of fire, he had every reason to think so.

This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda.

***The images used in this blog post were taken on my Sony Cybershot camera and my Samsung Star Duos phone.

TeNy

The Unsent Letter

Vampire Owl: My dear vampire apprentices, in this class, it is my honour and great privilege to read this letter which was written by the Vampire Bat to Uncle Dracula when he was a little fang-less one, but was never sent. This comes as a part of the second semester Part IV paper twenty four. There will be annotation questions coming from this one. So, please listen carefully.

Dear Dracula Uncle,

I have read and understood how badly the humans have written about you or have shown on the big screen and made your kind the monsters when they were the actual monsters. It is sad and depressing that you made the wrong decision to shift from Romania. The world has too many racists among them who can’t approve of someone who is classified as “the other” with them. You were too kindhearted and simple, and never knew about that.

The only thing that you ever wanted was to shift from your very old castle and at the same time, go to a place which was known to be civilized. But you were unaware of the ways of the modern humans as you remained dead for so long, and the dirt told you no stories. You were new to this world after your resurrection and even Igor was a confused man. You picked the wrong assistant and that was another mistake.

The Vampire Cat is the first witness to this letter, and even tried to eat it.

But when you reached the so called civilized, you understood that “being civilized” is not achieved by money and random education. It requires true knowledge and wisdom and a certain amount of empathy for the fellow creatures. But human beings never had that and couldn’t adjust to your basic sympathetic nature. You tried to help Lucy Westenra, but as she was an aristocrat and you were an outsider, they made up a story that she was ill due to your bite when the truth was that she was already ill.

The man behind her problem was Dr. John Seward, who was very depressed that Lucy turned him down and decided to marry Arthur. He was slowly but steadily making Lucy sick and was also looking to make his patient Renfield feel as if some big evil was coming – he knew that you could understand the major reason behind her illness with your special powers as he had known about you from some gypsies from Eastern Europe.

Then he called for this man called Abraham Van Helsing, a Dutch doctor who had taken fake degrees from different universities, and was trying to make a name for himself. He was known to murder poor people and brand them as vampires, collecting big bounty from the rich ones. He also treated many people for vampirism, when there was no presence of such disease in them. A wolf attack was also attributed to you, at a time when the group of werewolves were just going on biting people for no reason.

Ezhilampala where the Vampire Bat used to reside and he even learned its scientific name.

Then there were the Harkers – Jonathan Harker and Mina Harker, earlier Mina Murray. They were big liars and as this man had described about the Dracula Castle to this lady, she wanted it as a wedding gift. You were a Count by name only, and used to be basically just a farmer who led many socialist movements at your land, and the authorities never really liked you either. So they teamed up with the Harkers to create such a story which depicted you as pure evil.

I know that they tried to end you, but as we all know, a vampire can be defeated, but cannot be destroyed as long as we have our team. I shall find you with the help of my vampire friends and resurrect you again, as we know the secret of your eternal youth. We shall undo the wrong that has been done to you, and let the humans know who their real enemies are. They are corruption, misogyny, racism, casteism and religious intolerance. You shall be back and we will find a way for getting the humanity out of its inherent evil.

With bloody love,
The Vampire Bat.
Tree Branch No. 3, Ezhilampala (Alstonia scholaris), Somewhere near the Athirappilly Waterfalls, Kerala, India.

***All the photos used in this blog post were taken by me on my Sony Cybershot DSC-W310.

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

TeNy

A Few Unfamilar Rituals

Only a few months had passed since Mavis Dracula was born, and as Uncle Dracula thinks about this day of his past, it is our duty to take a look back to the day before Mavis’ first birthday with him. There are no questions to be asked, and there are no doubts to cleared, but accompany Uncle Dracula’s minions who take us back to that day. Let me assure you that Mavis is no lesser Dracula than our uncle, and it is something that she proved later.

It was quite a dark night, but still not enough for the vampires to celebrate their new festival, The Season of the Night. Dracula was inviting monsters for the first birthday of Mavis, his daughter who came to this world after sacrificing one hundred and twenty eight kilograms of potato chips mixed with blood. All the werewolves and zombies around the castle had agreed to come for the celebrations. But the big problem was at the castle when he was not there.

“This is not happening. I can’t do this at all” screamed the Vampire Panda.

“You are the cutest available vampire in the locality. You have to do this” said the Vampire Penguin.

“Actually, you are pretty much cute too” added the Vampire Owl.

“What? No, I am a dangerous penguin with survivor skills. One day, I was travelling through the Bermuda Triangle and…”

“I don’t think that the baby knows that though. So cute penguins can do” said the Vampire Panda.

“The baby is crying. Can something be done? I have done a few things on situations like this – but I have awesome memory loss problem” added the Vampire Hamster.

“Actually, where is the Vampire Bat?” asked the Vampire Crocodile.

“He is doing his vanishing act. He bought the new and improved Invisibility Cloak from the Goblin Market” said the Vampire Owl.

“Is it like this clock shows time and we can’t even see it?” asked the Vampire Hamster.

“What? No, not that clock! Who gives vampire badges to people like this”? yelled the Vampire Owl.

“I am back! And I am starting a ritual here” said the Vampire Bat as he appeared out of the Invisibility Cloak.

“What is that weapon that you have in your hands? It is the book Dracula and what is this Pampers Baby Dry Pants?” asked the Vampire Owl.

“Both are for Mavis. She needs to learn about the adventures of her father told in the words of other vampires. Any questions?” asked the Vampire Bat.

“Is that book to be used as a diaper?” asked the Vampire Hamster.

“Are you even listening? Is it so difficult to understand the vampire world which is right in front of you? Vampire Crocodile, get to work”.

In a few minutes, things were set, and the Vampire Crocodile started reading the story. Vampire Cat dropped in and added a lullaby in the “meow meow” vampire model. Vampire Bat and Vampire Owl were making future plans while Mavis Dracula was already asleep. The next day was to be her birthday, a memory which Uncle Dracula was to use a few days later – that would call for another drastic rewind.

***The image used in this blog post is from the Happy Hours campaign page at Indiblogger. This blog post is part of the Happy Hours campaign from Pampers in association with Indiblogger. Check here for further details about the same: http://www.rewardme.in/tag/Pampers

TeNy

Movies Saving the Day

There are so many occasions when movies did save my day, and so you know there is another reason for falling in love with them. Movies are also a source of knowledge, and you don’t know when you can use them, especially when studying something like Literature or History for graduation and post-graduation. Movies are like superheroes – when they are not saving somebody else by moving away from your memories, you can always trust them to save you from different types of villainy; may the movies keep having their superpowers forever and ever 😀 Here are the list of those movies which saved my day:

Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994): I would consider this movie as something that changed my movie watching world, but other than that, this also served as the primary text for my thesis during my post graduation in English Language and Literature; the study called “Vampire as a Cultural Construct”. People have so many doubts about what to take for their MA thesis, and I knew I had to choose this – even as I had taken the book, the influence on the movie was more in my ideas and how I went on with the project. It is expected when a movie has cast like Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Antonio Banderas, Christian Slater and Kirsten Dunst.

Claudia the child vampire: the most haunting image of Interview with the Vampire

Joy Ride 2: Dead Ahead (2008): The first ever quiz competition’s first round can keep one nervous, and even as I have continued to be nervous throughout, this horror slasher movie helped me to get past the preliminary stage. We all know the story of three bears, but I had not known the name of the girl in the fairy tale. In the movie, the serial killer phones and calls the potential victim who came into his abandoned house as Goldilocks because she is blonde. But to make her feel that he is not watching her, he tells her that the name was given as a comparison to the story Goldilocks and the three bears as she and her friends came into his house like that and rests there. Yes, slasher horror saves and Nicki Aycox is a beauty.

Ghost Rider (2007): Johny Blaze a.k.a. Ghost Rider is my Doctor Faustus, and yes, those things which I had felt while watching this movie could be used with my study of The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe. That’s right, my ideas about Faustus has derived from my earlier watching of this movie, which has helped me a lot in working something for those seminars and assignments, rightly combining this with that world and making the necessary changes. Well, a movie with the same Mephistopheles, and a gorgeous Eva Mendes as extra with soul being sold in a contract – you can’t stop yourself from drawing a parallel here, no matter it is of Renaissance Era or the Modern Age.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002): This is my favourite Harry Potter movie, and that is not where my appreciation for this movie ends. There was a question in one of those exams about who Mrs Norris is, in Harry Potter. Yes, she is the lovely pet cat of Argus Filch, the caretaker of Hogwarts, and I seemed to be the only person knowing it. Every question paper has the last few questions, which are not directly from the text books. But this was completely unrelated to anything that we had studied, and I could gladly answer this and pray for more out of syllabus questions – a prayer which is sure to make me enemies among the usual students. This was Harry Potter saving the day in Kerala.

The English Patient: One of the best movie adaptations ever, and proven by the Oscars

The English Patient (1996): Well, this is a secret, as I had told everyone that I was going to read this one, but I never really tried until I was an MA graduate. Yes, I read books which are in the syllabus after I complete the course – then it will not feel like a text book. Then how did I answer those questions for exams? The credit for the same goes to this movie with Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche and Kristin Scott Thomas. This was one awesome movie, and my addiction to it made me watch it again and again, getting me prepared for the exams rather than the book or the guide. I had those things I had found out about the movie and used them effectively for the exams, which I am sure, should have worked very nicely.

Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992): This is the first Dracula movie that I have ever watched and the second vampire movie after John Carpenter’s Vampires. Yes, it is a fact that is recorded in golden letters in my vampire admiration history, approved by my fellow vampire lovers. Even as I have known Dracula and his minions since childhood, this one surely made the difference, and every time some Gothic stuff needs clarification, this is the memory that flashes into my mind. Yes, this one has saved my world on multiple occasions, even as I have now watched too many Dracula and vampire movies and so many of such books to need this one for reference.

*Keep calm and let movies save the day 😀 All the images used in this blog post are from the Official Facebook Pages of these movies.

TeNy

The Great Overlord Saga

It was one of the coldest and the darkest nights of the season, and there was a small team waiting outside a mansion located on the countryside, surrounded by huge trees. They were all having stylish black capes with red borders and one of them held a lantern which gave out red light.

“Keep your swords ready, my dear soldiers. This is your day of glory” ordered the Vampire Bat.

“Excuse me, sir. Why are we actually here?” asked the Vampire Hamster.

“What? Why is this guy even here? He is not even in the list. Who is he?” asked the Vampire Bat.

“He is a replacement for the Vampire Panda who has gone for his part-time job; to act as the Kung-fu Panda. He is good at being annoying. Hamsters have very short memory and we don’t even have to pay him” murmered the Vampire Owl.

“Okay, my dear vampire apprentice friends. We are here to fight the Legendary Pimple Overlord, defeat him, and save our leader and the best uncle that we ever had, Uncle Dracula from having that terrible pimple infection on his face. This is the day we shall always remember. It is mostly because our life is pretty much boring and we usually waste time sitting at home, but still this is going to be a day of great heroism like never before in the history of the vampire kind. I am kind of like Achilles, and so you can follow me with confidence” shouted the Vampire Bat.

“Yes, exactly as he said” added the Vampire Owl.

“Vampiredom forever” shouted the team together.

“I am bad in Mathematics, but still I am going to count till three. Ready, one, two and three” finished the Vampire Bat, as the team of Vampire Bat, Vampire Owl, Vampire Crocodile, Vampire Penguin, Vampire Alligator and Vampire Hamster kicked open the door and entered the house to come up against the Pimple Overlord, also known as the Man with the Thousands Pimples.

“That broken door will cost a total of 447 gold coins. Thank you. I hope you back through the same way” said the Overlord.

“This is the Pimple Overlord? A thousand pimples? Where are they?” asked the Vampire Crocodile.

“I have been using Garnier Pure Active Neem and all of them have disappeared, and I have even lost my title of the Pimple Overlord due to the same” said the Overlord.

“I have lost the purpose of my life” shouted the Vampire Owl.

“I wanted to fight with my sword before forgetting how to do that. I wanted to be a Musketeer Hamster” said the depressed Vampire Hamster.

“This is not the end, brethren. We shall find another one, at another time, because the story of pimples never end. It causes more problems than any other thing of the same calibre. We shall bring the Garnier Pure Active Neem for our aid and we shall fight and win our battles which will be recorded in golden letters in the history of vampirism” said the Vampire Bat.

“Vampire army, disperse” shouted the Vampire Owl.

The team returned to Uncle Dracula to give him the good news, that Garnier Pure Active Neem has got to the root of the problem, and there was hope for him to get his old face back. Dracula could be the awesome seeker and sucker of blood again, and could lead his pack with confidence.

This blog post is written in relation with the contest organized by Garnier Pure Active Neem (Garnier Skin Naturals) in association with indiblogger website, related to the problems related to pimples that common people have to face in their daily life. Thanks to Garnier India and Indiblogger for this great opportunity. Please check the websites for further details: bit.ly/GPABlogLinkIndiBloggerActivity and bit.ly/GarnierPureActiveNeemWebsite

The pictures used in this blog post are meant only to support this writing, and were taken from the Official Facebook Page of Garnier India at http://www.facebook.com/GarnierIndia.

TeNy

To Shave or Not to Shave

[No vampires were harmed while writing this story] [All images used here are from Gillette India’s official Facebook Page].

The settings were all complete for the Great Bloody Day of the Vampires. All arrangements were already done by the Vampire Bat, the Vampire Owl and the vampire apprentices. Vampire Crocodile was in charge of saying the welcome speech and the Vampire Cat with the vote of thanks. There was an unlimited supply of noodles and blood shake arranged by the Vampire Kung-fu Panda Catering service. The Vampire Cat was busy making sure everything was at the right places.

“Surprise! I am here early” screamed Dracula.

“Who are you? What do you want? What business do you have here?” asked the Vampire Owl.

Dracula was in doubt. It was the first time he seemed unknown in the vampire community. No other vampire had ever asked him that question; not even Louis de Pointe du Lac or Lestat de Lioncourt. A lot of them knew him from even a kilometre away; such was the impact created by him.

How many reasons do you need to shave with a Gillette?

“I am your uncle, the great, legendary Dracula” said Dracula.

“No, you are not Dracula. You are just a caveman in a Halloween costume” said the Vampire Crocodile.

“No, I am your most awesome Uncle Dracula. See my fangs?” Dracula said as he showed his teeth.

“No, our uncle is a bloody old man with the looks of a handsome young man. You look like you were wandering in the Carpathians and has now come here to take a free shower” said the Vampire Owl.

“I am Dracula, because my name is Dracula”.

“Yes, you might be a Dracula, but not the Dracula. You were named after our great uncle and teacher?” asked the Vampire Cat.

“What is wrong with you people? This is just the first time that I haven’t shaved”.

Lets learn something from the Wall here.

“No, Dracula never had the facial hair. Human turned Vampires never have that. You are a fake” remarked Vampire Owl.

“I never had the facial hair because I always shaved, you idiots” yelled an angry Dracula.

“We are not accepting that. We don’t see the vampire gentleman in there. It is too risky to let another person into this secret celebrations” said the Vampire Bat.

“See, this is my visiting card; it says Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia, Member of the House of Drăculești, Full time Vampire and part time Count, The Vampire Castle”.

“Anyone can make such a card. Do you have an id?” asked the Vampire Bat.

“What id? I don’t need an id. I am the greatest vampire of all time. Why do I need an id?” asked an aggressive Dracula.

“We need to approve you if you are to enter here. So, go and get your id”.

“But it will take me hours to go back there and by then it will be too late. Do you have a razor?” asked a worried Dracula.

Roger Federer. Awesomeness, Class and Gillette.

“No, we don’t keep razors here, because we don’t need that. Now, please leave as we wait for our one true uncle with absolutely no hair on his face” said the Vampire Owl.

“Yes, you shall not have any of my noodles with the special ingredient unless you prove that you are the one” yelled the Vampire Kung-fu Panda from a distance.

“What kind of idiots have I trained? I should have trained a coconut tree and it would have done better than these guys” murmured Dracula as he returned to the castle.

*Moral of the story from Count Dracula: Always shave or lose a significant moment or two.

This post is a part of #WillYouShave activity
at BlogAdda in association with Gillette.
I’m accepting and acknowledging the tag of Maniparna through this post. I’m tagging a few of my blogger friends for the same activity: Namrata, Rohit, Vartika and Sagarika

Please don’t forget to mention that you were referred by me in your post.

Topics for Girls:
An instance when a stubble came in the way of a man’s chance to make a good impression.
An instance when a well groomed look ensured that they struck gold on an opportunity given to them.
Topics for Guys:
Missed chances- Stories or instances where you missed out on an opportunity because of a non-shaven face.
Luck or Confidence?- Will you leave your fate in the hands of destiny or will you step up and say yes to a well-groomed face to be at your best everyday? #WillYouShave.

TeNy

Chucky’s Tea Party

*All pictures used in this blog are from the official Chucky and Annabelle pages on Facebook. No dolls were murdered and no spirits defamed during this conversation which happened at the Grand Chucky Tea Party.

“So this is your idea of a grand tea party? There are only two of us” said Annabelle as she stared at the collection of tea pots.

“A few more were supposed to be here. But there was a tragedy” said Chucky as he juggled with the tea cups.

“What happened?” asked a concerned Annabelle.

“It is about Uncle Dracula. He is going through a stage of depression. The whole team is there at the hospital” said Chucky.

“What? How come nobody told me? What happened to him?” screamed Annabelle.

“It happened on this Halloween. He was trying to scare a family, but that didn’t turn out as he wanted. It is actually quite ridiculous. The people who knew about it were asked not to talk about it” said Chucky looking up.

“Can you please try not to look on the ceiling fan in a dramatic way while telling sad stories? After all, you are supposed to be a serial killer” said Annabelle was she stared at him.

Chucky and Annabelle: A doll match made in the spirit world 😀

“Yes, but this is rather scary stuff. Uncle Dracula was living as a paying guest with a family somewhere in India after he got tired of the Eastern European climate. He was hoping that he could scare the people in that house on this Halloween and leave for a new place”.

“I would think that he managed to haunt the house enough to inspire a movie. He is good at that. It is him and his minions that disguise themselves as ghosts and haunt houses regularly” remarked Annabelle.

“The family consisted of the old man and his wife, their son and his wife, and their two little children, a boy and a girl. The son was a doctor and his wife an engineer. The old couple had spent almost all their family inheritance and savings just to make his son a doctor, and then to marry him off to the daughter of one of the richest families of the land, or rather the family offered to buy the guy with such a large amount of money that the son immediately accepted. The son was well-educated, but wasn’t taught about how to be a good guy”.

“Dowry? Buying the groom? It still happens among the humans? In this century?” asked a shocked Annabelle.

“Yes, it does. The marriage lead to the domination of the new woman at the house who despised the old couple and began to create problems with them. Everyday, she created a new problem and kept telling her husband to send them to the old age home. He was blinded by her money and beauty and couldn’t resist much. This Halloween was the day on which he was sending them to the old age home”.

“The Shining” Chucky – he knows exactly what you are cooking 😀

“Evil humans. Can’t they at least learn from how well we care for our own, especially the old and weaker spirits? Shameless people. We will beat them up when they become spirits, but I wonder if they do have a soul” added Annabelle.

“It was the day of Halloween, and Uncle Dracula jumped upon them with all his glory, and couldn’t stand the tears of the old couple and how they were treated by even their grandchildren on the day were to be packed off to the old age home. Uncle saw the devil in them; it was like seeing Mephistopheles on a bad horn and hair day, and he fainted. He was taken to the Dead Man’s Vampire Infirmary where the Vampire Bat and the Vampire Owl has gone to make sure that he is fine; they should have reached by now. The rest are on their way to see him from different parts of the world. He should be okay; Igor is a well-trained doctor, and he has Victor Frankenstein’s notes to aid him”.

“These humans are demonic creatures aren’t they? It is difficult to watch even what they do to their own. And they make movies on us an portray us as evil, just because we are dolls and have souls. I hope he doesn’t read newspapers daily, its further injurious to the soul” said a frightened Annabelle.

“And then they will ask for the freedom to be such idiots. The only thing that the new generation will fight for is not according to the priority – they claim to stand and try to achieve stupid things, but is it what society needs the most? For the same, they will get rid of their values and integrity. They are selling their souls to the devil with such ease, aren’t they? Parents land at old age homes, and children are abandoned enough to create a worse next generation. Do you know that the humans are coming back to this house today?” asked Chucky.

“What? Then why did you plan this program here? Are you out of your little doll mind? asked a tensed Annabelle.

“I don’t know. Nobody is coming, and I thought it would be romantic to have tea with you alone in a house haunted by humans. It was to be an adventure for the life time” explained Chucky.

The tears that used to be Annabelle’s blood – cute romantic stuff 😛

“Seriously? No wonder humans make dumb movies on you” remarked Annabelle who walked out.

“Humans, the scourge of Earth” added Chucky while running after Annabelle.

“You know nothing, Chucky” Annabelle was screaming.

“Who am I? Jon Snow?” Chucky wondered while running.

*Meanwhile, the Vampire Cat delivered the message that Uncle Dracula is alright and is drinking Blood Shake with tablets while having potato chips. The Vampire Bat and the Vampire Owl have gone to the multiplex.

TeNy

Of a Romanian Beauty

I have been watching tennis for quite some time now, and I have watched and admired many players, but none so much as Roger Federer, who redefined my days of watching that game which I have never played and might never play. I have spent hours just watching the maestro play, and have watched almost all the grand slams he has won, mostly as live action and sometimes in the form of highlights.

I have also admired Novak Djokovic with his game on a lot of occasions, and has considered him a worthy successor to the number one title which he is holding now. When coming to the women’s tennis, it has never had a clear favourite player in my list, as there used to be Maria Sharapova, replaced by Caroline Wozniacki who still remains one my big favourites, Agnieszka Radwańska who is there forever, and Eugenie Bouchard whom I occasionally root for as part of another army – Genie Army.

Roger Federer and Simona Halep, my choices for every Grand Slam 😀

Then there is Simona Halep, whom I have been supporting for months now as the latest addition to that list. Along with supporting Roger Federer, I have been wishing that she had one the women’s division too. I might still name my cat Agnieszka who have been the fan favourite player for the last consecutive years (and mine too), but the admiration for Simona has been something that has been growing like a vampire’s fangs. She is not screaming and doing all those strange actions on the court like some of the other players who overdo the same.

It is a feel-good moment when she wins those points 🙂

Ever since reading Dracula, I have always wanted to visit Romania, and support the nation in something, and Simona is the answer to my prayers to find something for the same cause. Yes, another reason to love Romania here, and I was actually surprised at how much she has come up in the rankings all of a sudden and how well she has improved her game. Well, it is still safe to say that not many people from this part of the world knows her yet, and that is rather a disgrace to all kinds of sports.

Always looking good whether on the court or off-court!

The twenty three year old from Romania has jumped in rankings and has arrived and settled inside the top ten of WTA Rankings, and now sitting steadily at number three below veterans Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova. She looks small, but has such an intelligent game to take on the stronger opponents. This was achieved after being a rather less heard name in Women’s tennis, which with frequent serve breaks, has been such an unpredictable side compared to the men’s tennis which has had the big four of Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray.

Hope she wins the next grand slam and more 🙂

She came so close to winning the Roland Garros this year too, but there is a thing about the French Open, as it is too elusive for the best players and those who play beautiful tennis. After having not that much of a good record in the grand slams, she could rise to the occasions this year reaching the final of the French Open and the semi-final of the Wimbledon in an year which saw her rise which also lead to the demolition of Serena Williams in the WTA Championships even as she lost in the final to the same opponent.

Not difficult to find Simona here 🙂 (Pic from Simona wiki page)

Among the players who are doing so well in the WTA, I would vote for Simona Halep this time, and the player who recently turned twenty three and at 5 feet 6 inches among the shorter top players, seems to be the rising star for the future of women’s tennis. Lets hope that she continues to play the wonderful tennis that she is producing and keeps us admiring her talent. *All the photos in this post except one are from the official Facebook page of Simona Halep (https://www.facebook.com/simonahalep)

TeNy

In Search of a Soul

Based on the graphic novel by Kevin Grevioux, the movie I, Frankenstein continues the journey of the monster which was created in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus. It does tell something about the background story which can be seen as a small introduction. The book has been among my favourite horror stories of all time, having an opportunity to read it during my childhood. Along with Bram Stoker’s Dracula, there was something about this novel which came second in my list at that time. So, a continuation of the tale of this monster was going to be intriguing.

The question about how good the movie is, might bring some discussions, but the major question about this work is not about its quality, but about one thing – the soul. It has Aaron Eckhart as the Frankenstein’s monster which wanders around the world we know without a soul. He has survived all the changes that the world had undergone and spends his time in loneliness. But he gets caught in a battle between the gargoyles appointed by the Archangels and the demons who are hoping to take over Earth.

✠ Know the Frankenstein Monster, the man in search of a soul in the land of vainglory. He is Adam Frankenstein, the first monster created on Earth, the demonic paradise.

The soulless monster, Adam Frankenstein (Photo from movie’s FB page)

The soulless creature becomes the centre of attraction because the demon Naberius, one of the original fallen angels, plan to use the procedure which was used to create this monster to re-animate a number of corpses without souls and use them as containers for the souls of millions in hell, unleashing an army of demons which will finally be able to walk on Earth and cause chaos. You remember the plan which was brought by Mammon and Balthazar in the movie Constantine and by Blackheart and his minions in the movie Ghost Rider.

It was quite easy to identify that the creature made my re-animating a dead body had no soul. But the interesting thing is that by his good deeds, he finally does grow a soul. Still, the question remains about the people of our present world. Do they have a soul? A conscience which makes them do good unconditionally in a world dominated by money where only the winners have honour and approval forcing one to shed goodness? The fact that a monster gained the same in a movie might not be consoling for many, as most of the current world lacks the abilitiy to be the container of a good soul.

Our monster does kill the wife of his creator in a few moments of anger and frustration, but the new generation does much worse. Their brutality to the people around them is not just related to some murder, but in their daily words and action as part of a long procedure which they consistently force upon their own species without any remorse. It is more like a river of anger and hatred flowing without restrictions on a monsoon. The anger at Maria Sharapova has subsided, but we do see a lot more every day, and the reality is much worse outside.

The creature was closer to the dead than the living, caught between two dimensions, of life and death, and yet manages to find life and the humanity worth his time and care. It was a creature without identity, and no conscience at all, until it became the “he”, changing his ideas about himself to more of a common hope for salvation, becoming part of all that he has known, from gargoyles to humans. He is still the equivalent of what we would call a zombie, but like in the movie Warm Bodies, he has something in him, and here it is more than just a heartbeat and a brain.

The beauty & the beast one step closer to the soul (Photo from movie’s FB page)

Our creature understands his higher purpose and elevates himself to something beyond the selfishness that he had earlier gathered. He understands that despite what he has gone through, it is not in his power to deny God’s will or to deny himself his own right to do good, as he himself was created by a creation of God, thus becoming God’s own, in an indirect manner. He is thus Adam, the first of his kind, and unique, yet part of the universe and its plans. As they say in the movie “You’re only a monster if you behave like one” – so do most of the humans of our time deserve a soul more than a monster?

TeNy

Vampires of the Soul

There is no other book that I loved more than Dracula, and I used to read many versions of the same in English and Malayalam during my childhood, and I have known Bram Stoker before I knew William Shakespeare. Count Dracula has been part of my early life more than anyone else and even inspired me to read more horror and made me watch my first horror movies, and my first horror movie in English to be watched on a VCR, John Carpenter’s Vampires. It would introduce me to the entity called “the vampire” which would never be redefined better than it did for me in this work.

Dracula was one person who never really scared me. But people around the world were worth being afraid of more than this one vampire. Some of them suck the life out of you, others money, and the worst of the suck the happiness out of you, and they are the vampires of the heart and soul. Most of them feel that they are the only people in the world, and the Earth no longer revolves around the sun, but instead exist for their own needs and all the people in the world are made for them to use. This one-human-centric universe have been sucking everything good out of our known world for centuries.

Consider the case of Count Dracula. He wanted to migrate to another country leaving his rural world behind. For the same, he leaves his old world behind and is ready to blend in with the so called urban people. But what does he get in the end? He is forced to keep running and in the end gets a stake through the end for trying to understand other cultures and mingle with them. He was a man of nature, blended with his natural environment and feared by the people of his land due to him being an introvert.

The beautiful Bran Castle, commonly known as the Dracula Castle (photo from wiki)

Now, there comes the problem of being introvert. There are many organizations for supporting even the dumbest things in the world saying that it is one’s personal life and there is the choice to be different. But being an introvert is rather too difficult, as the other take away or rather suck everything away, and bening terribly talkative has been becoming a need, and on the tip of the talks, there would be big lies which will help one to advance in life. The others who can’t lie or show off their vanity will suffer like Dracula.

Still, the society considers introverts and people who can’t use tell a beautiful lie every hour or so as not easily acceptable. Being talkative should be a choice, and when people are chosen according to the performances during a few minutes of interview, it is a case of losing the right person for the job and instead finding someone who can talk and justify all mistakes and atrocities. You can’t find the right person by talking for a few minutes, because lies are too easy to say for the new generation designed just to succeed. This is the world of fake smiles, and the season of faking love.

Dracula was undoubtedly an introvert and a man who couldn’t socialize easily, and the use of diaries, letters and logs in the work and making it an epistolary one means that it was rather the idea of a group of people from one side of the society, and even the ideas claimed to be of other people could have also been forged. May be he had some bad teeth, and it is also possible that he was too much addicted to wine – there goes the ideas about bad teeth and drinking the red fluid. He just belonged to another culture and it is usual to be afraid of the customs and traditions, plus he had his own special abilities.

Christopher Lee playing the Count, considered the common depiction (photo from wiki)

It is a usual misconception to related Dracula to the devil, and it is plain wrong. The vampire is surely not the devil, and beyond that, the Count has a personality which is far better than this plagued society which is not just affected by hatred towards other religion, caste, race and community, but also towards the random people who don’t know one’s idol or their most awesome person, a sportsperson, a movie star – any random celebrity. Yes, vampires have to look scary and not like a dumb teenager, but the story of the Count is debatable. Dracula was million times better than most of the vain humans of this age even on his worst day. Yes, the Indian cricket fans have already proved the same with their racist and sexist comments.

TeNy.