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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

Celebrating Pongal with books


Any festival is a reason to celebrate, and Pongal happens to be one of the important ones. Here is the kolam welcoming you to our home....





This year, the festival   has brought along an unexpected deluge of books, and what better way to celebrate than read!!  It all began with a temple visit which got so delayed that the temple closed! With nothing better to do, we ended up at a book store, and ended up coming home with a bagful of books for Samhith!!



With so many books for him, could I be far behind? Here are mine.... two different genres, two completely different kinds of books, but I am eager to read both!



The first book Bala Saraswati, is part of Blogadda's book review program, and I need to read it soon so that I can review it. The second, The Reluctant Detective, is the first novel of Blogger Kiran Manral, whom I met during the Lavasa Women's Rally. I am eager to read it, for this is the first time I am getting to read a book by a  person I actually know!!!

So now you know what I am going to be doing for the next few days, so if you don't see any posts here, please excuse me, for my nose will be buried deep inside one of these books!

Meanwhile, wish you all a Happy Pongal!!!

Comments

  1. Hi Anu, wishing you a Happy PONGAL. The welcoming Kolam is lovely..... so traditional.  I didn't know Kiran Manral had published a novel.  I have read both her blogs... 36 and counting and Karmic Kids where she blogs about her son.  wud luv to read her book.. thanks for sharing this info.

    Happy reading!

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  2. Happy Pongal and happy readings.

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  3. Thanks Aabha! Kiran has been promoting her book mostly on fb, and its available online too...

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  4. Super!! Happy Pongal to your family!! Enjoy!

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  5. A very Happy Pongal to you too!

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  6. So how do i start...from your Kolam i can make out..you are a Tamilian. And yet what fully agree..what better way to celebrate than read..we do this at our place during New Year.
    Happy Pongal to you and your family.

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  7. happy pongal, happy reading and happy posting so that readers like us can be happy :)

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  8. Happy Pongal to you and your family,  Anu! Happy reading! btw., I don't see my book! Is it among the 'read' list and hence doesn't feature in the collection? :))

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  9. Yes, Viyoma, I am a tamilian, and we do celebrate the festival the traditional way.. the only thing is, for me, no celebration is complete without books :D

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  10. Thanks Santosh!! hope this year i can keep my readers happy!

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  11. Thanks Zephyr!!! and ur book is not there because its being devoured!!! as of now by me.... but am planning to carry it to sringeri so he can read it in the train to and fro!

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  12. Vanakkam--Pongal Greetings
     Excellent post glad -to see Arts &Culture spreading with Books at Pongal ;
    am telling  my friends too..
    Kind rgds &best wishes
    Capt.TR (Retd)

    ReplyDelete
  13. happy pongal to all friends and families..

    ReplyDelete

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