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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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Birds at the Rail Museum

My cousins have never traveled much with me, and certainly never since I started writing. Though they do read my blog, they aren't really used to seeing me looking for material to write about. When I visited the Rail Museum in Delhi along with a couple of them, they were really amused to see me ignore the trains when I saw a flock of birds on the lawn.
They looked like mynas, which we see all over the place, and had a good time ribbing me about being more interested in birds than anything else. But with so many of my blog friends turning into birding enthusiasts that it was plain to even my untrained eye that these weren't the mynas I see usually. Returning home, and consulting with my bird book and with a bit of help from the net, I realized that the birds I had noticed were Rosy Starlings - the first time I had seen these birds! Here are a couple of pics....




There were, of course, many more birds there, probably because there weren't many people around! Here are a couple more pics.....

A dove wandered about happily....


and a rose ringed parakeet obliged me with a pose....


The Rail Museum used to be a favourite place to visit when I was a kid, and all I remembered from the time were the trains..... Never did I think that I would visit the Rail Museum with my son and end up photographing birds!!
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Location: National Rail Museum, Service Rd, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi, Delhi, India

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