Skip to main content

Featured Post

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

Encounters with the Common Kingfisher

The Common Kingfisher is, in my opinion, anything but common! I see its cousin, the White Throated Kingfisher, almost all the time, at home, as well as on my travels, but it took me a trip to the Satpura National Park to see the Common Kingfisher for the very first time! And then again, we didnt see it in the sanctuary, but spotted it while waiting for a boat to take us there! 




The Common Kingfisher is also called the Eurasian Kingfisher, or a River Kingfisher. I only understood the significance of the name on my visit to the Buxa Tiger Reserve in West Bengal when, once again, I saw the bird while waiting by the river for a boat!!! I wasn't able to click a decent photo  though, thanks to my loud fellow tourists, but seeing the bird once seemed to have turned the luck, for I saw it once again at the Baranawapara Wildlife Sanctuary, during my trip to Sirpur in Chhattisgarh. The first spotting was when Mridula and I were driving to the Tourist Resort in the sanctuary...



Later, at the resort, we spent a pleasant couple of hours sitting by the side of the river which flows past the property, watching the bird sit patiently on the fence, diving at just the right time to pluck out a fish from the water. Sitting idly by, we even wondered just how many fish it would need to eat, to fill its tiny belly! 



All these years, when people told me about all the times they had spotted the Common Kingfisher, I wondered why the bird eluded me. Now that I have had all these encounters with the bird, I can tell them my own stories too!!! 

Comments

  1. She looks beautiful. Sharing it with some avid birdwatchers in my family.

    ReplyDelete
  2. he looks great .. beautiful clicks
    and you said one of the hardest birds to photograph, very elusive

    Bikram's

    ReplyDelete
  3. Well, this is the bird that got me interested in bird-watching. I saw it fly by and went looking for Salim Alis' book; quite literally in that order!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I didnt know that, Usha! i guess this was at home?

      Delete

Post a Comment

Thanks so much for stopping by. Please leave a comment for me so that I will know you have been here....

Popular posts from this blog

Gokarna Part II – The Five Lingams

We continued our Gokarna trip by visiting four other Shiva temples in the vicinity, all connected to the same story of Gokarna. The story of Gokarna mentions the Mahabaleshwara Lingam as the one brought from Kailas by Ravana, and kept at this place on the ground by Ganesha. (See my earlier post- Gokarna – Pilgrimage and Pleasure). However, the story does not end here. It is believed that, in his anger, Ravana flung aside the materials which covered the lingam- the casket, its lid, the string around the lingam, and the cloth covering it. All these items became lingams as soon as they touched the ground. These four lingams, along with the main Mahabaleshwara lingam are collectively called the ‘ Panchalingams’ . These are: Mahabaleshwara – the main lingam Sajjeshwar – the casket carrying the lingam. This temple is about 35 Kms from Karwar, and is a 2 hour drive from Gokarna. Dhareshwar – the string covering the lingam. This temple is on NH17, about 45 Kms south of Gokarna. Gunavanteshw

Rama Temple, Gokarna

To my right , the waves rush to the shore, eager to merge with the sand. To my left, the same waves crash against the rocks, their spray diverting my reverie as I ponder over the beauty of nature, and wonder what first brought people here. Was it this beauty that encouraged them to build a temple here, or was it the fresh, sweet spring water flowing from the hill here that made this place special? No matter what the reason, I am glad my auto driver brought me here. We are at the Rama temple in Gokarna, just a few minutes away from the Mahabaleshwara Temple, yet offering so different a perspective.

Pandharpur Yatra 2023

The first time I visited Pandharpur was back in 2007 . The names Vitthal and Pandharpur, were just names to me. I had heard of them, but that was about it. Seeing the lord standing on the brick, hands on his hips, was memorable, but more memorable was the sight that greeted us as we walked out of the main sanctum of the temple. In the mandap just outside were a group of devotees singing abhangs , and dancing. This was the first time I had heard abhangs , and even almost 15 years later, I can remember the welling of feeling within me, listening to the songs, and how fascinated I was by the sight of the devotees dancing, lost in their love of the Lord. Over the years, as I have read more about Vitthal, and participated in Ashadi Ekadashi programmes at Puttaparthi, that first experience has stayed clear in my mind and heart. Every time I tell my Balvikas students of the saints who sang of Vitthala, it is that experience that I re-live. I visited Pandharpur again, in 2010, but that experie