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Newasa - Encountering an unique form of Vishnu, and Sant Jnaneshwar

The year was 1290 . A crowd had gathered around a clearing, where broken down pillars marked the presence of an ancient temple, now long gone. A young boy, just 14 years old, leaned against one of those pillars, deep in thought. Then, he began speaking, and the crowd fell silent, listening to his every word. He spoke without any notes, translating the Bhagavat Gita, from Sanskrit, which only the pundits knew, to the language everyone in the village knew and spoke – a variety of Prakrit which developed into the Marathi language. Even as he spoke, one of the men in the audience realized how momentous this event was, and how important this composition would be. He began writing down the words the young boy spoke, and this composition was named by its author and composer, the Bhavartha Deepika – the enlightening meaning (of the Bhagavat Gita). Now, the ancient, holy text, was no longer restricted to the pundits, but accessible to all, understood easily by them, composed as it was, in their...
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Blue Oak Leaf Butterfly

On our recent visit to the Maharashtra Nature Park, we were early as usual and waiting for others to turn up. Not having permission to enter the campus itself, we were sitting near the entrance, Samhith jumping up and down. Even as I was wondering how to make him settle down, we noticed a butterfly hovering over the nearby tree. I despaired of taking a photograph, since in my limited experience, butterflies rarely stop long enough to allow me to focus my camera and take a decent pic. This turned out to be my lucky day, since the butterfly settled on the tree and refused to move.
I inched as close as I could and managed to get quite a few shots in before I realized that the reason why the butterfly wasn't moving too much was that its wings had been injured. there was a large tear on both its wings, though it did fly away after a while, reassuring me that it could still manage to fly and take care of itself. The butterfly was so beautifully camouflaged that both of us simply stared at it for as long as it sat on the tree, even after I had clicked to my hearts content. Here are the photos of the Blue Oak Leaf Butterfly.....







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Location: Maharashtra Nature Park, Dharavi, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

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