Skip to main content

Featured Post

2023 - The Year That Was

Places impact you for a variety of reasons. And the same place impacts different people in different ways. This is especially true when it comes to spiritual experiences, where every single person’s experience is unique. And personally, every spiritual experience is unique, the same person can have different deeply spiritual experiences at different places, at different times. This thought has emerged because of my own experiences over the years, but especially so this year, with different and unique experiences at various places I have visited recently. I began this year with a visit to Baroda (Vadodara) with friends. It was meant to be a relaxed trip, a touristy trip, with our sons. We enjoyed ourselves to the hilt, but the highlight of that trip was a visit to the Lakulisha temple at Pavagadh. It was the iconography of the temple that I connected with, and I spent a few hours simply lost in the details of the figures carved around the temple. There was an indefinable connect with
6 comments

Kashi Yatra


Varanasi is a city which has always fascinated me, and I have been fortunate enough to visit it twice. The first time I was a school kid, and my memories are vague, but the second time, which was about two years back, I spent 10 memorable days there while my in-laws performed all conceivable rituals and prayers. I came back so full of information and enthusiasm, that I wrote 16 posts on the trip, and finally ended up making a separate blog for all of them. 

Once I was through with it, this blog was left forgotten and never updated, since I had nothing to add! However, I have been surprised by the slow, but steady response this blog has received over the last two years. People have not just been visiting the blog, they also leave comments, and mostly write to me asking for clarifications or telling me about their experience. A few people, in fact, came back to tell me that my blog had helped them plan and execute their trip. For a blogger, there is nothing more satisfying, wouldn't you agree?

Well, moving on, having nothing to write about, I have recently started looking at my other blogs and have been trying to update them or bring something new to each one of them. The first one I have looked at and made some changes in, is my Kashi Yatra blog.

Many of you are recent visitors to my blog, and may not have seen my Kashi blogs. Please head on to Kashi Yatra and take a look. 

For those who have already seen it, there are a few changes - the most important being an eBook! Yes, I have compiled the blog posts into a eBook in Pdf format, and you can download it and read it at your leisure. This feature has been added mainly for people like my mother and mother-in-law who love to read about temples and pilgrimages, but are not comfortable with computers and ask me to take printouts of interesting things so that they too can read and enjoy them

So go ahead and take a look. And please tell me what you think.........

Labels:

Comments

  1. MridulaFebruary 17, 2010 at 8:09 PM

    Loved your Ayodhya pictures on the kashi Yatra blog.

    ReplyDelete
  2. sandeepFebruary 19, 2010 at 4:46 PM

    nice writeups :)

    varanasi and rameshwaram are two places i wanted to visit for a long time now. dunno when i will :(

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anuradha ShankarFebruary 19, 2010 at 5:46 PM

    @Mridula: Thanks

    @Sandeep: Thanks a lot... they are both beautiful places.. and i am sure u will go sometime... and i shall look forward to your pics when u do....

    ReplyDelete
  4. Jacks WilsonAugust 18, 2010 at 4:39 PM

    Well written, i want to featured your blog on my blog as a best blog.
    my blog url- http://evrythingaboutindia.blogspot.com

    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
9 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’t ju
1 comment
Read more

Rama Temple, Gokarna

To my right , the waves rush to the shore, eager to merge with the sand. To my left, the same waves crash against the rocks, their spray diverting my reverie as I ponder over the beauty of nature, and wonder what first brought people here. Was it this beauty that encouraged them to build a temple here, or was it the fresh, sweet spring water flowing from the hill here that made this place special? No matter what the reason, I am glad my auto driver brought me here. We are at the Rama temple in Gokarna, just a few minutes away from the Mahabaleshwara Temple, yet offering so different a perspective.
3 comments
Read more