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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

Drenched!!

While we sit inside the house in relative comfort, while it pours cats and dogs outside, look at this kingfisher sitting patiently in the pouring rain, apparently oblivious to the cold, even though it appears to be huddled up...



It sat still for almost half an hour, and then suddenly swooped down, caught something in its beak, and sped off towards a tree....I was left with mixed emotions - I had been feeling rather sorry for the poor bird having to sit in the rain and cold, but now I was left wondering if that was what the bird had intended - to wait patiently till its prey came along... Does it enjoy the rain or is it just a matter of necessity? I have no idea, and am not likely to find out either... What do you think?

Comments

  1. Oh how lovely.. to watch the rains..

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  2. I gues that lamp post is a very popular hangout joint in the bird community...

    earlier the parakeets, now the kingfisher.. :P

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  3. They have started showing up on this side too after the rains.

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  4. It is monsoon and Mumbai gets submerged by water. But the air gets fresh, all the dirt gets washed away and good you get to see to see lot of birds ....

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  5. Ah hah! Now a white breasted kingfisher comes and gives you a show. You are definitely lucky...

    I am sure that all birds are programmed to handle the rain comfortably.

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  6. lovely sight! so calm and content :)

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  7. Strange are the ways of a nature!
    Great observation.

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  8. I wish to get drenched in some rains too..and I promise not to prey on anyone..hehe!

    ReplyDelete

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