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
For a travel addict like me, journeys are always memorable - Some for the sights, some for the experiences, some for the destination itself, and some simply for the co-travellers. I just returned from a trip to Lavasa, which had a bit of all these and more! To begin with, this was the first trip to which I was invited as a blogger, which gives and ego boost like no otherJ! Add to that, a location with a huge and picturesque lake nested amidst the hills, a view to vie with heaven, a room facing the waterfront promenade, and the company of like-minded women who never ran out of things to talk or laugh about, and you have the perfect trip, wouldn’t you agree?
While I made the most of the sights, clicking away to glory ( I returned with over 500 photographs!!), and enjoyed the Women’s rally, which was the point of the whole trip, what I really relished was the company of all the wonderful people – Nisha, whom I had already interacted with, and enjoyed talking to, about our travels and common friends; Kiran, whose blog I read and identified with, totally relating to her experiences bringing up her son, who is similar to Samhith in more than just age; Monika and Ideasmithy were people whose blogs I had read off and on, but didn’t know at all. In spite of that, talking to them was surprisingly so easy, and not one of us shut up even for a while! Pushpa was someone I came to admire for all the varied things she does (Just take a look at all the blogs she maintains!), besides which her enthusiasm and determination are amazing! And of course, Shakti, who had to leave early, and was sorely missed the next day! Last but not the least, the lone male amidst a phalanx of women – Biswajit (Bish to us!) from Windchimes, who bore the company of six women who talked non-stop, about everything under the sun, from husbands to boyfriends, kids and food, blogs and blogging……, and even then, didn’t desert us for a minute, in fact, helping us beyond the call of duty! Thanks to all of you, for making this a really memorable trip!
There are lots more posts coming up, about Lavasa – the drive, the views, the place, and lots more, so keep coming back!
Meanwhile, there are two interesting things that happened while I was away –
First, I was featured on the Windchimes blog. This happened a while back, but since I was offline, I was blissfully unaware of it. As they say, better late than never, so here is a link to their post. Please do take a look and read all the nice things they have said about me J
Secondly, my posts on Hampi are on the Club Mahindra Blog. There are two of them, so please do take a look at both… Don’t worry, there’s not much to read… just lots of photographs! Here are the links –
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