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Odisha Part 6: The Yogini Temple of Hirapur

I fell in love with this temple the first time I set eyes on it. Back in 2017 , I had been excited to see yet another Yogini temple, when I visited Puri. The resort I was staying at (and writing for), had arranged for a car and driver to take me around. The driver was happy to take me to most of the places I wanted to go, but when it came to Hirapur, he was appalled. He knew of the temple, but had never been there. It was a tantric temple, one not visited by women, and certainly not women travelling alone. He tried to convince me not to go, but my stubbornness and persistence paid off, and he reluctantly agreed when I told him that if he didn’t take me, I would find another driver who would. All along the way, he kept going on about the sinister things that happened at the temple, the tantric rituals that were performed at night…. An Odisha brahmin who took his religious duties very seriously, to the extent of stopping the car to perform the sandhyavandam when he deemed it time, he...
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Trysts with Swifts

My tryst with Swifts seemed to continue, even on our trip to Morachi Chincholi......

My regular readers will remember that the first time I saw swifts in large numbers was when I had been to Omkareshwar - We had then seen swifts nests in the rocks lining the river Narmada......

I got  a closer look at the house-swift's nest on my trip to Binsar, where we were lucky to see a mother swift in her nest with her swiftlets.....

And now, on our trip to Morachi Chincholi, we stopped by a river to dip our feet in the cool water, and what do I see, but a group of swifts flying hither and thither, and under a bridge, a cluster of their nests!! What a sight! I was happy to show off my knowledge, and we began clicking photos.... Of course, we couldn't get any closer thanks to the water, and this is the best I could do!




Hoping that my tryst with swifts continues in the future too... and not just with swifts, but with other birds too!!
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Comments

  1. UshaJuly 7, 2010 at 2:50 PM

    Hey! Saw some swifts here yesterday and I also quickly showed off my knowledge :D

    ReplyDelete
  2. P.N. SubramanianJuly 7, 2010 at 6:43 PM

    Life is like that. All good wishes.

    ReplyDelete
  3. MridulaJuly 7, 2010 at 8:42 PM

    It is still very beautiful. And I usually get to see the other Swift, the Maruti Swift!

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousJuly 7, 2010 at 9:54 PM

    Oh.. that must have been beautiful..

    ReplyDelete
  5. IndraniJuly 8, 2010 at 11:15 AM

    Oh! To see them so close! How lucky!

    ReplyDelete
  6. RashmieJuly 8, 2010 at 1:17 PM

    it must have been exciting! Nice short post :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. rahul kumar singhJuly 8, 2010 at 2:57 PM

    To see them so close! How lucky

    ReplyDelete
  8. Indian BazaarsJuly 14, 2010 at 7:39 AM

    This is really interesting! Never seen this before.

    ReplyDelete

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