The Majestic Elephants In My Travels
In response to Dancing Elephants Photography January Prompt — Elephants
Thailand
I have a fascination for elephants and surprisingly wherever I travel I find elephants too. 🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘
I follow the elephants or they follow me. I have so many examples but here I am going to tell you about my travels and the elephants I found there.
The photo above was clicked by me in Bangkok, Thailand. Perhaps you could read a little more about elephants and the Safari world 👉🏽 In When You Need A Break Enjoy The Land Of Elephants.
The Safari World is a place where you see the elephants moving around free from shackles. After all, Thailand is the land of elephants as it is their national animal and they take care of them.
Cruelty towards elephants is not tolerated in Thailand.
At the park, they do a show. They dance, they swirl and they dance. Children dance with them and people whistle and clap when they show their dance.
Nature, joy, and inspiration! Such fun to be with the elephants
The visit to the park was full of joy.
In India elephants also represent spiritual energy as one of the Gods Lord Ganesha has an elephant's head. All auspicious things that happen have to be started with Lord Ganesha's blessings.
Travel to Jaipur (Rajasthan, India)
I went to Jaipur in Rajasthan (India). I saw many elephants over there. I saw children sitting on them and going to Amer fort. The fort is at a great height. Jeeps go there or elephants. It is very steep.
Inside the fort, there were many shops. Rajasthan is known for its organic colors in clothes and in printing and dyeing them.
The guide took us to a small factory where they were doing block printing. They invited us to print too.
While I was shopping, I found a dress with elephants printed on it. Believe me, it was my first choice to pick up. I did not want to see any other clothes after that. I got what I wanted. The elephants were with me. (See the picture above).🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘
It was creative, gave me joy and inspiration to see the work
The elephant has great significance in our lives. We have them as charms, jewelry, bedcovers, dresses, and artifacts See below my bracelet.👇🏽
Travel to Kolkotta in West Bengal India
I went to Kolkotta on Christmas. It is celebrated over there with great fanfare. There is a street called Park Street which is decorated with colorful buntings everywhere.
There is a line of restaurants over there. We could not get in anywhere. There were waiting for two hours everywhere. Judging from this you can imagine the number of people that visits Kolkotta during Christmas.
There was a Tea House called Flurry’s that was very famous over there. We went and refreshed our memories and had the most aromatic Darjeeling tea with their special cookies, pastries, and sandwiches.
The Tea House also had a waiting period but somehow one of the owners was known to a friend of ours and he was kind enough to arrange some chairs and a table and we were served the most wonderful snacks over there.
When we came out, we walked along the row of shops.
There was a beautiful large showroom of silver articles. Kolkotta is known for its beautiful workmanship. I saw beautiful plates, vases, bowls, and jewelry.
When I looked at the silver anklets, necklaces, bangles, and earrings I felt like so many things. However, it was so expensive. The shopkeeper told us it takes days to make it and it was pure silver.
I was almost going to leave the showroom when I turned and saw a bangle with elephants all around.🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘
It was expensive but I just could not leave it. I indulged in splurging a little.
I bought the beautiful bangle. I still treasure it and whenever I wear it my friends always ask me about the elephants on it. It is my prized possession. The elephants give me joy.🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘
There is creativity, the inspiration of the elephants, and joy to be with them and the art involved in the work of the bangle.
Travel to Orissa
I traveled to Orissa with a group of people to the Puri temple, Konark sun temple, and then to Bhuvaneshwar.
I saw beautiful fabrics, sarees, and many artifacts. They were fascinating but I did not buy anything.
Then we went to Bhuvaneshwar.
I saw miles of rural areas and rural people selling green coconuts. They were very poor. I asked the group if we could stop and drink some coconut water and give money to the poor people. We chatted with them for a while.
After covering a few more kilometers I found that there was a village and people were selling colorful mats, chairs, and umbrellas in bright colors. I did buy a bright blue umbrella with motifs but someone liked it and I gave it to them.
There were many little artifacts and I found an elephant again. This had a small elephant inside it. I found it fascinating.
Kindly see the above. This is made of stone that is found in Orissa. If you look closely above, there is a little elephant inside the big elephant.
The little boy who was selling it brought down the price. He said he wanted to sell something to buy food. I felt the poor fellow is hungry and I get enough to eat. I am ever grateful to God for it. I bought the carved stone elephant and still have it with me.
Look at the creativity, and art of carving of the elephant
Elephants find a place in my heart and in my home. 🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘
Finally, let me thank Lord Ganesha for his blessings and good luck. I am in gratitude and believe that elephants come to me for a reason.
If you see the above picture Lord Ganesha has the head of the elephant as his face.
The above Lord Ganesha in shining gold mental was presented to me by a friend who brought it as a good luck token from one of her travels on a conference to Assam.
This is how I landed up at the Dancing Elephants Press. Another coincidence is that I met the owner Dr. Gabriella Korosi during my travel to the USA and later became an editor of the publication.🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘No wonder the elephants inspire me.
Thanking our esteemed editor Vidya Sury, Collecting Smiles for this wonderful prompt on elephants.
I hope you would like to read some beautiful nature posts.🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘
©Dr. Preeti Singh, 2023.
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