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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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More than just Coochie Coo!

It was hardly meant to be a birdwatching trip, but we saw more birds than expected. Yes, many of them were common ones, but we saw them in uncommon positions, many of them either courting, or mating! These Eurasian Collared Doves at the Nehru Park on the Fateh Sagar Lake were oblivious to the tourists as they went about their business during their breeding season. 





As I clicked these snaps, for a minute, I actually hesitated, extremely conscious of the fact that I was the intruder here!








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  1. Bhavesh ChhatbarAugust 5, 2011 at 5:53 PM

    I must say that you are not only lucky but you have a great photographer inside you.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anu ShankarAugust 5, 2011 at 7:27 PM

    Thanks so much, Bhavesh!

    ReplyDelete

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