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The Vaishnodevi Experience 2023

My first trip to Vaishnodevi was unimpressive. Climbing was hard, and it only served to highlight how badly out of shape I was, while my in-laws managed to cope so much better. Further, I hadn’t quite realized that the cave experience wouldn’t be the same as I had imagined, since the original cave was only opened at certain times a year, and that we only entered a newly created tunnel, one far easier to access, and hence more manageable with the crowds that thronged the mountain shrine. The resulting experience at the shrine, for barely a fraction of a second, hardly compared to what I had expected / imagined / heard about. So, for me, Vaishnodevi was like any other temple, nothing to write home about, something that was reflected (though not explicitly mentioned) in the blog post I wrote then.
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A sudden trip to Munnar - Photos

“Let’s go to Coimbatore” said my husband, and like a dutiful wife, I agreed. But wait, that’s not where the story begins. The story begins earlier in the day, the 14th of August, when my sister-in-law was supposed to come on a visit to Bombay with her husband. We were all planning to go to Shirdi, and had made all the arrangements. Unfortunately, our plans went awry, when their plans were cancelled due to some persona problems. All of us were disappointed, but none more than my son, who simply refused to believe that his aunt was not turning up as expected. That’s when my husband returned from office and put forth his question. Coimbatore? …Now? …How? Questions flew fast and furious, but he had an answer for everything. We had a long weekend ahead, Independence Day on Friday the 15th, the weekend followed by the Parsi New Year on Tuesday. We could have five days in Coimbatore with Sandhya, just by taking a day off from school and office. Well, to cut things short, he booked tickets, and made all the arrangements in minutes, and we spent the rest of the night packing up and getting ready to leave early in the morning. We caught the 5:45AM flight to Coimbatore, and joined Sandhya and Sankar for flag hoisting at his office. They were equally thrilled at our arrival, and we all decided to spend the weekend at Munnar, just a 5 hour drive away. It was another matter that the weekend crowd would make it difficult for us to get rooms there, but we decided to take a chance and make the most of our holiday. You can read more about our trip in the posts to come, but for now, you can take a look at the many photographs I have taken in those two days. Keep looking out for more……


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  1. UnknownSeptember 29, 2013 at 2:10 AM

    It’s hard to find knowledgeable people on this topic, but you sound like you know what you’re talking about! Thanks
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