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2023 - The Year That Was

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
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Birds from my Window - Hoopoe

One of the best things about birdwatching is the excitement we feel on spotting a new bird. Even better is spotting a new bird in our own backyard! We were decorating the road outside our building with rangolis to welcome a procession of a local deity, and Samhith, who was hanging around, giving his opinion of our artistic skills, suddenly called me... This is what we saw....





a Hoopoe!!!!! In all honesty, it is quite a commonly seen bird, one we have seen many times before, but this is the first time we saw one at home!!! literally in our backyard! How could we not be excited!!




For once, I didn't have my camera with me, and had to run upstairs to get it while Samhith stood by, ready to stop people from frightening the bird away. Thankfully, the bird stayed where it was, till I managed to bring my camera and get some decent shots! 




The gaps in the stone paving of the compound, which so many of us have often complained about, seem to be providing the hoopoe with food. The bird somehow seems old and tired... or is it just me? It also didn't appear to be as bright as it usually does. All you experienced birdwatchers, any reasons you can think of, to explain? 

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Location: Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

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