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...
Samhith says he is not afraid of anything...... Anything, except cats and dogs, especially when they enter our building, taking advantage of the grilled door carelessly left open. The frequency of such uninvited visits recently increased, to the extent that a cat tried to gain entry inside one of the houses, leading to a lot of amusement (and of course a lot of shouting and shooing and all kinds of activities). Finally, each visitor to our building was sternly told to make sure that they closed the door and didn't allow the cat to enter. The cat however, was one resourceful female (like all females!) and she gained entry somehow into one of the unoccupied houses on the ground floor, and hid in the cupboard to bring forth a litter of kittens. Now, Samhith is certainly not scared of them. On the contrary, he wants to pay them a visit everyday! I had my camera with me (incidentally, to take pics of our Ganesha leaving) and he insisted that I take pics of the new family.... So, here they are... the resourceful mom and her kittens.....


Anu I am not sure if my first comment went through. But the cat family makes a pretty picture.
ReplyDeletethe kittens are so kitty :)
ReplyDeleteVery cute indeed!
ReplyDeleteThat lake is in a Ganesh temple in Borivli.
@Mridula: thanks...
ReplyDelete@Aarti: nice description :)
@Arti: thanks.. the immersion was really well organised there....
Nice Blog! Well most of your content and image is original and informative. /many thanks for sharing this, cheers.
ReplyDeleteAdditions