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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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Birds From my Window - Purple Rumped Sunbird

Starting the week with this gorgeous bird I see from my window every single morning when I send Samhith off to school....





The Purple Rumped Sunbird is a regular at our colony, and I see them everyday, busy sucking nectar from flowers. They are, however, not at all easy to photograph, and I have only been able to capture these since this one arrives every morning, just before 8 AM, perches on the wire for a while and looks all around peacefully before getting to work! 


For a tiny bird, which is less than 10cm long, it is amazingly colourful!


Look at all the different shades of blue/ purple it has, on that tiny body!


What better way to begin a week, than with such a colourful bird, right?

I live in Mumbai, in a colony lucky enough to still have plenty of trees and open spaces. The best part of living here are the birds I see from my window, every single day. "Birds from my Window" is a series, where I regularly feature photos of birds I see from my home. To see all the posts in this series, click here. 

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Location: Chedda Nagar, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Comments

  1. CharuOctober 6, 2015 at 10:53 AM

    It's gorgeous! You are lucky to be able to spot so many lovely birds right from your window :)

    ReplyDelete

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