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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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Oriental Garden Lizard

The Garden Lizard is a common reptile we see all the time. However, I still can not resist photographing it, especially when it decides to pose for me. Here are some photos of Garden Lizards taken at the Nehru Park on Fateh Sagar Lake....





In the breeding season, the male's head and shoulders turn bright orange/red and his throat black. From the pics, it seems the breeding season may just have started, for there is just a tinge of red on the head/shoulders while the throat is black.






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