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

Of old journeys and new ones... and a glimpse of my recent trip

June 2007: Shankar and I head out to Jaisalmer, 4 year old Samhith in tow. It is a memorable trip, one where we walk for hours over the Golden Fort, clicking photographs with our trusted old Kodak camera, as we take turns carrying Samhith and posing! We trudge across sand dunes on camels, even as I close my eyes tightly to avoid the queasy feeling, and then happily play on the sand, though it still retains some of the heat of the day! I return with so many tales from the trip that my sister in law suggests I start a blog.







November 2007: ‘A Wandering Mind’ is born, and, after the first few posts, I get into the groove. The sixth post is about Jaisalmer, and it is the first of the long posts filled with photographs that soon become the norm for me J

It has been seven years since then, and I have come a long, long way. My humble blog has grown by leaps and bounds, and today, as I write my 867th post, my thoughts are on that 6th post I wrote so long ago…because this post is about the same place I wrote then. Wait. Did I say, “the same”? Well, the only thing that is the same is the destination – Jaisalmer.

This time, I travelled without my family, but with a bunch of bloggers and journalists, invited by Suryagarh – Jaisalmer, to experience the “Monsoon Magic”. I thought this would be, for me, a retrospective trip, albeit cooler and pleasanter, seeing the sights I had seen so long ago. As it turned out, I couldn’t have been more wrong!!!







The only place I revisited was the Jaisalmer Fort, and even it has changed so much that I looked at it with new eyes. But above all, this trip opened me up to completely new facets of the desert, as we went off the road, explored sites long forgotten, and experienced the desert in all its glory. It was truly a magical experience, one where the stories overshadowed the sights and the attractions.




And that is what my new posts on Jaisalmer are going to be about – stories of the desert! For now, I leave you with some photos I have already posted, on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram… That’s where I post updates while on the move, so follow me to keep track of where I am and what I am up to! 







Peacock at Suryagarh

Suryagarh


P.S. I noticed that some of the photos were taking a lot of time to load. Please let me know if you face the same problem too, and I will replace them. 

Comments

  1. Hope you had a great time in Jaisalmer. Nice captures. 7 years is a long time, Anuradha. May you write many more such lovely travelogues.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you so much, Niranjan! We did have a great time. It was most fun catching up with everyone! Hope to meet you too soon!

      Delete
  2. The years fly by, don't they? I have experienced the same thing with visiting the museums and monuments in and around Washington, DC. I love them but only get back to them occasionally; it's always interesting to see how 'different' they look and feel from my memories of the last time I was there.

    I enjoyed seeing your pictures of Jaisalmer, and I look forward to the rest. I could only wish that more of my mornings started out with chai in a beautiful courtyard! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you so much, Natalie!!! I too so wish my mornings could always start that way!!!! And I actually love revisiting places. The change in perspective, from outside as well as inside me, is really interesting!

      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