Yo people!

Here I am, back after an extended ‘holiday’ from my blog. Though I have been away, I confess that the blog and its readers were in my mind every moment. Sigh. Such is life. You are physically in one place but mentally in another. Don’t get me wrong though, I was enjoying every one of those moments away wherever I was, and yet I was secretly pining away too, to get on back here and let my fingers do their tap dancing bit.

Now to the question of what filled my days to the brim (and overflowing) leaving me no time to sit down and tap away. I went away on a holiday to visit my sibling, the only ‘real’ brother (there is another much younger ‘virtual’ one I have adopted, hence the tag of ‘real’ here) and the sister in law in a hitherto unexplored part of India, the state of Odisha.

Nope, didn’t see all of the state as such, just the city they resided in, Odisha’s capital Bhubaneswar and believe me, it had much to offer. There was also an out of city venture to the much loved (by birders) Mangalajodi Wetlands. Yoohoo! You can say that was the highlight of my visit. So thrilled to have had the opportunity to sit in a country boat and glide through, trying to spot birds.

Do I hear the clamour of ‘Photos! Photos!’? Or is it merely my imagination? Whatever, the photos will be making their appearance in this blog space by and by. You can imagine how short of time I was when I tell you I downloaded them only a week after reaching home. Or was it more like ten days? Anyways..

The majority of migratory birds were yet to make their appearance at the time I was there. But not to worry. I was glad to have any bird in my sight after a long time. I also saw the famed ‘black’ tiger and other inhabitants of the Nandankanan Zoological Park, not to mention the caves at Udayagiri hills, Dhauli, the Raja Rani and Mukteswara temple, and hold your breath, the Sun Temple at Konark with its exquisite architecture. I had to give the famed Puri temple the go by because walking barefoot is not an option for me. My loss, I know. But one cannot have everything.

After the holiday, I attended a Madhubani painting workshop (and spending time on making a new painting), been making new friends, meeting old ones (another get together is planned for next week), and if you can believe it, I have gone and joined a Zumba class! Yup, never a dull moment in my life, right? By the way, how Luci would have barked at me if she could have seen me jumping around! Well, actually I don’t ‘jump’ as such having told the much younger instructor that all ‘jumping’ was off limits for me. I merely move from one foot to another. After all one has to show due respect to one’s aged and ready-to-crumble bones.

All this means that I have lots of pictures and stories to share (I need to read up more on some of the places I visited), and will be getting down to it in the coming days. So buckle up, or not. I mean if the ride gets boring you need to get off in a hurry, right? All up to you. And on that note, I sign off.

©Shail Mohan 2022