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Odisha Part 2 - Puri: The Experience of Jagannath

The temple of Jagannath at Puri is one of the four most important temples across India. Sometimes called the Char Dham – Badrinath in the north, Rameswaram in the South, Dwarka in the west, and Puri in the east – these temples mark four corners of our country, and each of these temples has a connection to Adi Shankara. He is said to have travelled to each of them, thus marking a sacred geography of India, long before the country actually existed. Among these 4 temples, 3 are dedicated to Lord Vishnu, while only Rameswaram is dedicated to Lord Shiva, though the lingam there is said to have been installed by Rama. Further, Shankara set up Mutts at 3 of these sites (or very close to these sites, like at Badrinath, where the mutt is at Joshimutt), while the mutt in the south is at Sringeri in Karnataka, quite a distance away from Rameswaram. Coming back to the topic, I have visited Rameswaram most often, Badrinath during my childhood, and Dwaraka a few times, but Puri had stayed out of re...
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Back from a monsoon break!

There is no better time to explore the Western Ghats than the monsoon, but we rarely get to go anywhere in the rains, thanks to the school schedule. This year, however, we struck lucky, with the school changing its term breaks, and giving us some bonus holidays in August! Which is why, you haven’t seen me online the last couple of weeks. Where did I go? Can you guess from this pic?




Yes folks, this is Jog Falls in Karnataka, a place which has been on top of my wish list for a long, long time!!!

With the recent happenings in our family, Shankar wasn’t able to join us, so I first thought of heading out alone, with just Samhith in tow. Then, on an impulse, I decided to drag my mother along, so, for those of you who haven’t met her yet, here she is, along with Samhith, whom most of you know well by now!



The main idea of going on this trip was to give Samhith and me a much needed break, since we aren’t really sure how much we will be able to travel this year, and it surely did that. As you can see from these pics, Samhith did have a wonderful time…


Whether it was playing on the Om beach at Gokarna…






Or making sand castles….



Travelling by passenger trains…



Or picking shells on the Varca beach at Goa…




Or soaking in the spirit of Goa….



And these were just a few of the many things we saw and did!!


This was one much needed vacation for us, and we enjoyed it to the hilt. It is now time for me to re-live all that enjoyment, sharing all of it, with all of you! So stay tuned and keep coming back! There is loads coming up, soon!!!!

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Comments

  1. Santosh BsSeptember 2, 2013 at 4:34 PM

    Quite a lot of places covered... and he's turning out to be a good poser :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. MridulaSeptember 2, 2013 at 4:38 PM

    It sounds like a good holiday. Waiting to hear more. And the water fall pics are so beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
  3. RenukaSeptember 2, 2013 at 5:29 PM

    Wow! What a lovely place! I want to visit it too!

    ReplyDelete
  4. R Niranjan DasSeptember 2, 2013 at 7:15 PM

    The first photo is awesome.

    http://rajniranjandas.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete

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