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
The Tea Cerebrations 