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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.
3 comments

Mud Wasp

What do you do when you see a wasp? Stay out of its way? What do you think we do? Click it of course!!!!



This black and yellow wasp, probably a mud wasp, was busy building its nest on our balcony door in our room at the Club Mahindra Coorg Resort. It was fascinating to see how a little blob of mud quickly turned into a nest, all ready for occupation.


Unfortunately, not everyone shares our fascination for such creatures, and predictably, neither did the resort staff. We returned from a walk to find the nest gone, the door wiped clean. All we could do, was wonder if the wasp had found a safer place to build its home.
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Comments

  1. sriOctober 2, 2013 at 1:51 PM

    hahah :) quit a challenge

    ReplyDelete
  2. Meghana HassanOctober 3, 2013 at 7:45 AM

    Beautifully captured...

    ReplyDelete
  3. P.N. SubramanianOctober 5, 2013 at 11:43 AM

    Wonderful! Some of the wasps could also be found in the unused plug points outside our houses. Incidentally coul you please dispense with word verification as I am straining my eyes (may be of old age)

    ReplyDelete

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