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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

A Slithering Visitor

We were returning from school and stopped by our compound wall to look at snails (as usual), trying to see if all of them were still around, when we spotted what we first took to be a rope, and only later realised was a snake! Both of us looked on, fascinated by the slithering creature which wove its way in and out of the holes in the wall, looking for God alone knows what! I realised that I had left my camera at home, and rushed up to bring it, wondering if it would still be around when I returned! It seemed to be a patient creature, for it was still around, and I did manage to get a couple of snaps, though not too good ones..... but at least now I have evidence that I have actually seen a snake in my yard!!!

It seems to be pure luck that I managed to get the entire snake in the frame for the very first pic.... Can you see its head and its tail?? and how it has managed to get in and out of the holes??


Here's a closer look at its head...... along with a lizard too... which hogs the limelight here....


But these were all the pics I could manage before it seemed to realize that it was being watched, and slithered into the undergrowth!  We barely had time to notice the greenish yellow underside before it disappeared, forget taking a pic! Neither of us had the guts to go looking for it again!!!

Comments

  1. Hi, I wanted to see a snake last week , nice to see it on your post

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  2. anu
    congrats for the hillarious effort

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  3. That was quite brave of you!
    Great clear captures both.

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  4. I would have run away if I saw one! Great to see that both of you stood your ground.

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  5. @Lakshmi: You wanted to see a snake last week?? Why on earth?? I was so scared, but stood still only because I was fascinated and also sure that it wasnt poisonous!!

    @AswathiBabu: thanks :)

    @Indrani: not really, it was quite safe from where I was,, and I was close enough to run back inside our building :)

    @Mridula: I am sure you wouldnt have run away! you would have got much better pics with your camera!!

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  6. That was brave! And good you were able to click that picture! Nice one!

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  7. snakes gives me creeps.I don't think I would have taken a photo like that.

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  8. I love seeing those little creatures making there way around!

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  9. I really cherish yr comments...so promptly that you do leave them...
    interestingly..this post has a snake in it...and as yu know my latest too has one...
    i am sure we are destined to meet sometime in life...and figure out a connection that preexisted!!
    Take care

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  10. I like watching Snakes on tv.. Thats it!!!

    Seen one when i was small,hidden behind the bathrom door [me inside the bathroom]. and then again one slithering away when i had just brot Floppy[doggie] home as a pup...

    Wow, not only did u see one, but managed to click pics too...brave woman :D

    Lakshmi's been wanting to see one since last week..lolz..!!

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  11. Wow, that is some snake and some photo! How long it must have been, to go in all those holes and still be seen!

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