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The Vaishnodevi Experience 2023

My first trip to Vaishnodevi was unimpressive. Climbing was hard, and it only served to highlight how badly out of shape I was, while my in-laws managed to cope so much better. Further, I hadn’t quite realized that the cave experience wouldn’t be the same as I had imagined, since the original cave was only opened at certain times a year, and that we only entered a newly created tunnel, one far easier to access, and hence more manageable with the crowds that thronged the mountain shrine. The resulting experience at the shrine, for barely a fraction of a second, hardly compared to what I had expected / imagined / heard about. So, for me, Vaishnodevi was like any other temple, nothing to write home about, something that was reflected (though not explicitly mentioned) in the blog post I wrote then.
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The Resident Reptile

This one is a permanent resident of our colony, and can be relied on to appear every now and then, reminding us of his presence, especially as a warning to kids not to venture into the bushes! Capturing him on camera has never been easy, even though he comes out to bask in the sun,  because he seems to be more wary of the kids than they are of him, and he is the first to disappear when they mark their arrival with whoops and shouts.

I saw the chap this week as I left to collect Samhith from school, and he didn't seem to be bothered much by me, and continued to absorb the warm sun rays after a sudden spate of rainfall.


As I clicked on and on, happy that I had my camera with me for once, he turned to regard me, as if wondering what I was doing!


Incidentally, for those of you who are interested, this one is an Indian (or Oriental) Garden Lizard, also called a Changeable Lizard. It is NOT a chameleon, though it does change its colours, but much more slowly.

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Comments

  1. IndraniOctober 28, 2010 at 8:51 AM

    Great captures Anu, he seems to be knowing he is getting famous. :)

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  2. Bindhu UnnyOctober 28, 2010 at 4:00 PM

    Nice shots, Anu. :)

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  3. chitraOctober 28, 2010 at 8:21 PM

    Recently we were observing a chameleon and were surprised to see it was not changing colours. May be it is a slow process.
    This one looks like a mini iguana.

    ReplyDelete
  4. indicaspeciesOctober 28, 2010 at 8:50 PM

    Good to learn about this Garden Lizard. Thank you for this post.

    ReplyDelete
  5. ArtiOctober 28, 2010 at 9:11 PM

    Nice clicks Anu... He too seems very curious!!

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  6. Anuradha ShankarOctober 28, 2010 at 10:24 PM

    @Indrani: Thanks... yes, he does seem to love the publicity!

    @Bindhu: Thanks.

    @Chitra: samhith was asking me the same thing sometime back, which is why I searched a bit on the net before simply labeling it as a chameleon! and yes, it does look like a mini iguana... i was trying to get samhith to understand about evolution that way...

    @Celine: thanks.. i learnt a lot too thanks to writing the post :)

    @Atri: thanks... he really seemed curious!

    ReplyDelete
  7. NatashaOctober 29, 2010 at 4:03 PM

    Awesome photographs, Anu. And I always thought that fellow was a chameleon- nice to know that he is not.

    ReplyDelete

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