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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

An Oleander Hawk Moth - Ever heard of it???

Waiting for the school bus is usually boring, but in the rains, we have really begun looking forward to it, and even get ready early, just to see what we can see! Over the last few years, we have really developed a fascination for snails, so much so that samhith spots them wherever we go! But then, the monsoon brings us so many surprises, and there was another one for us a few days back.......

As we stepped out into our compound, we noticed this moth on the sewer cover - definitely a place we avoid... But this one was so interesting, we went to take a closer look......and many many pictures too....




It took me a while to identify this one, but Wikipedia informs me that this one is an "Oleander Hawk Moth", a migratory moth found in Asia and Africa, which flies off to Europe during the summer! And its caterpillar feeds solely on the leaves of the Oleander tree (the 'Arali' in tamil), which are highly toxic, but interestingly, these caterpillars are immune to its toxicity! Imagine seeing such an interesting insect in our backyard!

Comments

  1. It looks beautiful and attractive. The wings have some kind of pattern resembling eyes and moth.

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  2. It is extraordinary! Wonderful!

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  3. The color combinations on the moth are very nice. You have captured them beautifully.

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  4. anu
    appreciating very much for yr observation...very thanks for the new information too...

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  5. Lovely!..
    Its ncie to something out of the ordinary in a big city isnt it?

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  6. wow!

    yu carry yr camera every where huh?!!

    happy spotting...its wonderful for us!

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  7. The moth must be hard to spot when it is on a bush. Wonderful camouflage pattern and coloring.

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  8. Hi! lovely pictures once again!

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  9. Nature's way of protecting each creature.
    Those eyes and the scary view that it depicts (in the first picture) is one way to scare away predators.

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  10. Yes I have heard about it and photographed the same. Your images are cool Anu...Thomas

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  11. great shot
    thanks for sharing

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  12. WOW! Such a nice looking moth! Never heard or seen it before...thanks for sharing it with us...

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  13. In the first photograph it looks like a monster. Some days back I spotted a very large green moth but unfortunately I was not carrying a camera.

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  14. Great find Anu. Thanks for sharing!

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  15. @Indrani: yes, they do...this type of moth apparently has eye-patterns to scare away predators!

    @Arun: I thought so too..... but then realised that its apparently quite a common one!

    @Joy: yes, it was! thnks..

    @Rajesh: thanks.....

    @Aswathi Babu: thanks a lot!

    @Meena: so true... we think of the city as a place with no relation to nature...but nature has a way of showing itself everywhere!

    @Sowmya: thanks...well, not everywhere, but want to, at least!!

    @Callie: yes, it would be... the colour of the leaf it loves on is exactly the same!

    @Mridula: thanks....

    @Usha: thanks... you are missing some wonderful stuff!

    @Haddock: Absolutely!!

    @Thomas: thanks.... I really thought of you while photographing and again while searching for its identity :)

    @sm: thanks!

    @Sankara: thanks.... neither had I!

    @PN Subramanian: well, it does look a bit like a monster... but we are used to moths now.. so really dont think of it as scary any more!

    @Celine: thanks!

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  16. i also have one of these can some one plz help me

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  17. i found the informs about this on Montezuma's Insectopedia

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