Skip to main content

Featured Post

Temples of Kashi - The Tilbhandeshwar Temple

The city of Kashi is filled with temples, big and small, old and new. There are temples at every corner, and you never know where you will stumble upon a small shrine. There are idols beneath what remains of trees (there are hardly any trees any more within the core area of the city), there are saffron covered forms resembling deities which seem attached to walls, an especially incongruous sight when the idol itself appears to be old, while the wall is evidently new…. And there are surprisingly large temples rising from what appear to be a bunch of houses. The city is sometimes colloquially said to be as old as time, and some of the shrines and temples are said to date back to times unknown, at least the deity itself, if not the structure. Not much remains of the ancient structures anyway. The city has seen more than its fair share of good and bad times. It has seen the heights of grandeur, and the lows brought about by destruction. The city that exists today has grown so haphaza...
Post a Comment

Binsar - Part 10 - A 'swift' meeting

We were on our way to Bageshwar when suddenly we stopped behind a line of vehicles, only to find that the road was being repaired and that we would have to wait till the road roller and the other vehicles moved away! At first we spent some time looking here and there but were soon thirsty. Our store of water having just got over, we decided to see if we could find some water anywhere. Walking towards the place where the road was being laid, we found a small cluster of shops and asked for water. Unfortunately, no bottled water was available, but the people pointed us towards a tap which they said had drinking water. Samhith was too thirsty for me to protest, so we went ahead, and drank straight from the tap, a new experience for Samhith. He was surprised that the water was so cool and sweet, that he declared that the water was far better than the bottled ones, and I heartily agreed with him!

As we walked back towards the car, we saw a number of swifts flying to and fro, and paused to take a closer look. We had seen plenty of swifts from the moment we arrived in the mountains, but they were too fast for me to even get a good look at them! Having plenty of time on our hands, we decided to linger and take a closer look. While I tried to capture one swift sitting on a shelf inside a shop, Samhith was a bit more curious, and went inside a small tea shop and started looking around. When I called him out, he refused, and instead asked me to come in and see something!



The ‘something’ turned out to be a swift sitting on a nest over a bulb-holder! I was too thrilled for words and began clicking immediately……




I was so thrilled by the sight of the swift sitting on the nest, but soon it left again, and imagine my surprise when I saw swiftlets inside, opening their mouths wide in anticipation of the food their mother would bring when she returned!








By this time Samhith had wandered off, and he again called out to me excitedly, for he had seen another nest – in fact, the whole place was full of swifts nests! And on one of them sat a swift comfortably, not even frightened off by excited and curious people like us! Samhith too was surprised that the bird did not fly away like the others, and I explained to him that she was probably sitting on her eggs, waiting for them to hatch!






We were so engrossed in the swifts that we did not even realize that the road was no longer blocked! One of the villagers called out to us, saying that our vehicle was moving, and we abandoned the swifts and returned to the car!

When the car had stopped, we had been irritated at the unexpected delay, and bored. Never did we expect that it would bring us such a wonderful experience! Time did fly ‘swiftly’ indeed!


Labels:

Comments

  1. ShilpaMay 13, 2010 at 11:59 AM

    so sweet... esp the swiftlets taking food :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. MridulaMay 13, 2010 at 12:03 PM

    Just a beautiful post Anu, what an amazing experience. The nest looks so cute over the bulb and the chicks the ultimate prize for a photographer!

    ReplyDelete
  3. DinoMay 13, 2010 at 12:49 PM

    Oh,
    Really its a very interesting post.
    I like your post very much.
    Thanks
    Dinosaur Valley Inn

    ReplyDelete
  4. San Antonio HotelMay 13, 2010 at 12:57 PM

    Awesome Post,
    I like the concept of your post, please keep it up with your posts.
    Thanks
    San Antonio Hotel

    ReplyDelete
  5. LakshmiMay 13, 2010 at 1:50 PM

    what a lovely post..this is one of a kind experience

    ReplyDelete
  6. UshaMay 13, 2010 at 4:28 PM

    awesome! lovely pics and what an experience!

    ReplyDelete
  7. chitraMay 13, 2010 at 9:42 PM

    the delay on the road came as a blessing to all . We too got an opportunity to see all the cute Swifties.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Ashley AshbeeMay 14, 2010 at 5:31 AM

    Aw what a sweet post... I love that the little swifts brought you so much joy. Birds do that for me too. These ones sure are cute! They're inventive little critters... making a camera into a nest-holder!

    Yes, I have always felt tap water tastes better than bottled!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anuradha ShankarMay 14, 2010 at 2:05 PM

    @Shilpa: you should have seen them! it was such a wonderful experience!

    @Mridula: thanks... and it was such a great surprise.....

    @Dino: thanks a lot....

    @San Anotonio hotel thanks a lot..... it was indeed a one of a kind experience...

    @Usha: thanks...thats why i missed talking to you... there were so many things to tell u...

    @Lydia: thanks so much!

    @Chitra: absolutely!

    @lovelable_homebody: thanks a lot.....

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thanks so much for stopping by. Please leave a comment for me so that I will know you have been here....

Popular posts from this blog

Gokarna Part II – The Five Lingams

We continued our Gokarna trip by visiting four other Shiva temples in the vicinity, all connected to the same story of Gokarna. The story of Gokarna mentions the Mahabaleshwara Lingam as the one brought from Kailas by Ravana, and kept at this place on the ground by Ganesha. (See my earlier post- Gokarna – Pilgrimage and Pleasure). However, the story does not end here. It is believed that, in his anger, Ravana flung aside the materials which covered the lingam- the casket, its lid, the string around the lingam, and the cloth covering it. All these items became lingams as soon as they touched the ground. These four lingams, along with the main Mahabaleshwara lingam are collectively called the ‘ Panchalingams’ . These are: Mahabaleshwara – the main lingam Sajjeshwar – the casket carrying the lingam. This temple is about 35 Kms from Karwar, and is a 2 hour drive from Gokarna. Dhareshwar – the string covering the lingam. This temple is on NH17, about 45 Kms south of Gokarna. Gunavanteshw...
10 comments
Read more

Newasa - Encountering an unique form of Vishnu, and Sant Jnaneshwar

The year was 1290 . A crowd had gathered around a clearing, where broken down pillars marked the presence of an ancient temple, now long gone. A young boy, just 14 years old, leaned against one of those pillars, deep in thought. Then, he began speaking, and the crowd fell silent, listening to his every word. He spoke without any notes, translating the Bhagavat Gita, from Sanskrit, which only the pundits knew, to the language everyone in the village knew and spoke – a variety of Prakrit which developed into the Marathi language. Even as he spoke, one of the men in the audience realized how momentous this event was, and how important this composition would be. He began writing down the words the young boy spoke, and this composition was named by its author and composer, the Bhavartha Deepika – the enlightening meaning (of the Bhagavat Gita). Now, the ancient, holy text, was no longer restricted to the pundits, but accessible to all, understood easily by them, composed as it was, in their...
2 comments
Read more

Review of Executive Lounges at New Delhi Railway Station (NDLS)

During my recent trip to Uttarakhand , I was faced with a problem I had never encountered before. We were passing through Delhi, but we had hardly any time in the city. On earlier visits when I have had to change trains/flights at Delhi, I have always arrived in the morning and left again at night, visiting relatives in between. This time, I was arriving in the city at night, and leaving again early in the morning. There was hardly any time to visit people. I would only have a couple of hours with them before I’d have to leave again. For the first time, we considered booking a hotel, but there again, we were hesitant about the actual hotels, the costs involved, and the logistics of getting from the airport to the railway station and then back again from the station to the airport.  That’s when we remembered reading something about a corporate-managed lounge at Delhi station. We soon figured out that we could book online and pay by the hour. Besides, we also learnt that there wasn’...
2 comments
Read more