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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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My Book Review is on the Penguin Blog!!!!!!

A hard-core book lover, I have been following the Penguin Blog for some time, and was thrilled when they launched  Blog a Penguin India Classic. All I had to do was sign up on their site and send them a mail with my postal address. They would send me one of their Indian Classics (a random choice) and all they wanted in return was a review of the book! The opportunity was too good to resist, and I immediately sent them a mail. I expected the book after perhaps a week or so, but imagine my surprise when it landed on my doorstep the very next day!!
The book I received was 'Divya' , by the talented Hindi author Yashpal. Now, my knowledge of Hindi classics is sketchy, thanks to the useless state board Hindi syllabus in my school. I have always wanted to read translations, but have put off buying these books because I have never been able to decide which books are really good translations, and worth buying. As to the library that I belong to, they have none of these books. What a pity.
The book seemed interesting, and having a bit of spare time, I started reading it, and found that I just couldn't put  it down!!!! I finished it within two days (remember I am a wife, daughter-in-law and mom - otherwise, in my carefree college days, I would have finished it in one sitting!)  and the very next day, sat down to write a review. This proved to be rather difficult, for I have never written a review before. I must thank Ramya of Ramya's Bookshelf. I went to her site (which I have been following for a while) and re-read a couple of reviews before starting again. I finally finished writing it yesterday and sent it to them.
Surprise! Surprise! I received a mail today from them saying that they were putting up my review on their site, and even better, mine would be the first one to be posted!!!! I am so thrilled! Check it out here.



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Comments

  1. AnonymousMarch 26, 2009 at 11:24 PM

    well done again!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sujatha BagalMarch 28, 2009 at 7:40 AM

    good for you, I say!

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousAugust 10, 2010 at 5:35 PM

    Pretty cool blog you've got here. Thanks for it. I like such themes and everything that is connected to them. I definitely want to read a bit more on that blog soon.

    Anete Kuree

    ReplyDelete

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