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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.

Memories of bangs and scares.....

I have been tagged by Sujata  and the rules of the photo tag are:
1. Open your first photo folder.
2. Scroll to the 10th photo.
3. Post the photo on your blog and tell the story behind it and
4. Tag people to do the same.

So here is mine…….




This one is certainly not one of my better shots, and the only excuse I can offer is that I was just learning to use my new digital camera. My sister-in-law had come to Bombay for Diwali and we had headed off to Shirdi for the Diwali holidays. All of us wanted a break and a proper vacation, something which Shirdi does not offer, and decided to head to Bordi…..you can read about our trip here.

Anyway, there we were, on Diwali…….. on a beach drier than anything we had ever seen, and Sandhya and Shankar headed off to find fire crackers. Samhith was thrilled at the idea, but once we began, he was so scared that he refused to participate, and huddled behind us in fear!!! I am not too fond of crackers either, and I occupied myself taking photos of Shankar trying to induce Samhith to set off at least one cracker while the others enjoyed themselves……..


Of course, that was two years back…. Today, it’s another story with Samhith looking forward to lighting crackers by himself this year!!!! Of course, none of us like the ones which make a big bang, and enjoy setting off only the simple ones like flowerpots and Bhoomi chakras….

Now, here’s the part where I get to read about others’ memories……

I tag T&S , Lakshmi, Sankara, Aaarti,Patricia and Srivats….

Looking forward to reading your posts…..


Comments

  1. oh.. thank you Anu... this one is really easy.. I'll do it instantly for sure!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh nostalgic :) yeah bang ones are bit of head ach :) U tagged me ;) would do it sometime

    ReplyDelete
  3. It is very difficult for me to work with photo tags, but I will see if I can come up with something in my next post since my current post is already up today. I won't be tagging others but I will surely try and cross reference you in my next post Anu.

    ReplyDelete
  4. An interesting picture that tells a story.

    ReplyDelete
  5. @ Patricia: shall look forward to reading yours....

    @ Srivats : Hey, you should have some interesitng pics now.. make it the first folder of your europe trip....

    T&S : no problem...... just wondered what pics you would come up with....

    @ Glennis : yes, every photo has a story to tell...interesting... isnt it??

    ReplyDelete

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