An American in India

I’m well past being late on posting, but it takes a while to sort through all these pictures. I’ll upload some this week on here as well as Facebook for all who wish to see!

Dec 17 – Delhi

Our 2 hour flight from Hyderabad to Delhi had us landing still in the morning, and arriving at the hotel while breakfast was still going on. We dropped off our bags and walked down the street for some breakfast, then headed out to see some of the sights. The first spot on our list: Akshardhan Mandir

Akshardhan Mandir – Heritage Exhibit

The Mandir (temple) is a complex constructed in 2005 dedicated to Bhagwan Swaminarayan (1781- 1830) and taken from the website is a place of worship as well as to learn about the Hindu culture. Was built using traditional temple architecture styles with sandstone and marble with the help of over 8,000 volunteers from across the world donating a total of over 300,000,000 man hours. Pictures weren’t allowed inside the buildings where the idols were housed, so those you’ll have to check from the website.

Qutb Minar

A UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Qutb Complex dates all the way back to 1220 A.D., construction of which was started by who would become the first Sultan of Delhi. The complex had buildings added by different rulers over the several years of its existence, but its best-known structure is the Qutb Minar. The Minar, or minaret, is the tallest brick minaret in the world, and second highest minaret in India (from Wikipedia).

India Gate

Made detour through the city on the way back to the hotel to see the President’s house (and guest houses) along with the India Gate. Looks a nice place to call home. The India Gate was unveiled in 1931 and is a monument to the fallen Indian soldiers from World War I.

Dec 18 – Road to Jaipur

Pink City

Jaipur got its famous red colored buildings as a means to impress British royalty (Prince Albert) when they were touring through the region all the way back in 1876. The Maharaja of Jaipur wanted to impress the Prince and his wife, Victoria. To do this, he had all of the buildings painted pink. The Maharaja’s favorite wife loved it so much that she convinced him to pass a law making it illegal for a building to be painted any other color. This law still stands today, which is how the city has retained its color (source). Other stops: City Palace (inside pink city), Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II Museum

Drove by Hawa Mahal (Puji later got to go inside)

One of the iconic pictures of India that most people may not know the name of is the Hava Mahal, or the big windowed-wall of the pink city that litters the search results of “Jaipur”. This Palace of the Winds, as its translated, structure goes back to 1799, well before it was painted pink. Was built so that the royal women could observe the sights of the street life and festivals below without being seen since it was still traditional for them to have their face covered. (sources: Wikipedia and MapsOfIndia). Also drove by Albert Hall Museum.

Chokhi Dhani

Chokhi Dhani is a village experience that aims to let the visitor see how village life was several decades ago in Rajasthan, and potentially in some rural areas today. It reminded me of a Silver Dollar City-type place with different shops and stations showing various arts, crafts, and foods. I also got to ride a camel! There were stages with dancers and others with bands sitting with traditional instruments playing tunes. Along with her parents, Puji and I sat for a traditional village meal, complete with a few different kinds of sweets, one covered in clarified butter (or ghee, as it is called), which turned out to be my downfall later on.

Dec 19 – Jaipur

Amber Fort

The next day we went to the well-known and photographed Amber Fort (or Amer Fort as it is also called) situated on the top of a hill on the outskirts of Jaipur. It was a windy road through the old town on switchback after switchback to get to the fort, but the structure, which started construction back in 1592, was incredible, and the views were amazing. From the top of the walls and through the windows, we could see over all of Jaipur, including the Palace on the Lake (our next stop). One of the cool spots in the fort was the mirror room. As its name suggests the room, and surrounding outdoor hallway, had its walls adorned with small mirrors, so that it could be lit by a single candle. The guide showed us this by pointing a flashlight to the ceiling and running his hand over the beam. Looking up, we could see the shimmer of the beam in hundreds of the tiny mirrors above us, giving the appearance of stars twinkling. Hundreds of years ago, this would let a single candle be used for illumination at night, and let the royalty have the feeling of sleeping under the stars from the smallest source of light.

Jal Mahal – took pictures

In the Google search of Jaipur, along with the red fort and Hawa Hamal, the Jal Mahal will also be among the top image results, easily identified as a palace in the middle of a lake. This one we couldn’t go inside (didn’t feel like swimming) so we took pictures from the greenway surrounding the water.

Nahargarh Fort

Another hilltop fort dating back to the 1700’s with a beautiful view of the city of Jaipur from the fort’s walls. Here my stomach got the best of me and put me out of commission for the rest of the day and was confined to the hotel while Puji and her parents carried on to one last stop for the day.

Puji and parents went to Juntar Munthar Jaipur (there are 5 Jantar Mantar monuments, the largest of which is in Jaipur), an architectural site home to several sundials, including the world’s largest sundial and one that is accurate to a minute.

Dec 20 – Jaipur, Leaving for Agra

Fatehpur Sikri is a fort within present day Agra that was founded in 1569 by a Mughal emperor, and served as the Mughal capital from 1571 to 1585. The emperor moved the capital from its old position (23 miles away) to Fatehpur Sikri (‘Fateh’ meaning ‘victorious’), complete with a 5-mile-long wall built from its days of use. It was abandoned in 1585 once the spring-fed lake which supplied the fort with water dried up.

Dec 21 – Agra

Our last day of the trip we made it to the one cite that seems to universally represent India – the Taj Mahal. Taj Mahal (which according to Wikipedia means ‘crown of the palace’) was built by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal. At around 350 years old, there are several reasons why it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and considered a World Wonder. The craftsmanship is amazing, with all the colored sections of the outer wall not being paint, but inlaid semi-precious stones, which to the touch are perfectly flush with the rest of the structure – all of which is marble brought in from Rajasthan (state in which Jaipur is). This holds the record for place with most pictures taken on the trip.

Shower

Several days after the wedding and I think we’ve fully recovered from the lack of sleep and the long days that were the nights surrounding and day of. The wedding day started VERY early with us waking up for the Haldi ceremony, where haldi (turmeric and water paste) is smeared on the skin of both the bride and groom at their respective homes. Since my home is on another continent, mine took place at her uncle and aunt’s house – Ramesh, who took my dad and I to see the Buddhist Stupa a few days ago. The house was adorned with yellow and white flowers, and I was positioned in a chair with rice dropped on my head and turmeric smeared on my face, arms, and legs.

There are a few reasons and beliefs for this tradition: yellow is an auspicious color and helps bring in a life of prosperity for the couple, turmeric is a known antiseptic so this ceremony also has some health benefits, and is even known to alleviate nervousness since there is a natural mild anti-depressant in turmeric.

Once I was sufficiently covered in the haldi paste, Puji’s relatives (as well as my father) showered me with warm water while still sitting in the chair outside. After this and more pictures while shivering from the drying water, I was able to take a quick shower to rinse the rest of the turmeric off. Once dry and dressed I received a marking on my forehead resembling a fleur de lis, which was a marking signifying I am getting married. After this was completed and we had an early lunch, my dad and I went back to the hotel to rest up before the big ceremony started that evening.

Wedding

Around 5pm we had dressed in our wedding attire – my dad in a kurta and I in a Sherwani. On the walk in to the hall, Chetan had to come and wash my feet, symbolic of him begging me to wed his sister. I was supposed to have a gift prepared for him, but I forgot about it so I looked like a dumb foreigner at my own wedding (not the first time, nor the last). We were instructed to continue walking slowly (no sense in rushing to a place I’ll be sitting for several hours), kind of like a grand entrance for the groom and his processional. Went straight for the groom dressing room on stage right, where my dad, Padma (wedding coach; made sure I knew what to do and say, would have been lost without her), and I waited while Puji was on stage.

Puji had some stuff to do on stage prior to my stage entrance, so I just hung out and hydrated in the room. I wasn’t supposed to see her until a certain point in the ceremony, so when I finally came on stage, there was a veil between where we were sitting. We tied strings around each other’s wrists that had a small leaf in it, symbolizing the promise of marriage, then had betl leafs placed in our hands, jaggery and rice mix on that, which we proceeded to place on each other’s heads, which was the actual moment we became a married couple and the vail was lifted. In old traditional arranged Indian marriages, that would be the moment the bride and groom would see each other FOR THE FIRST TIME. Crazy to think about, huh?

After this Puji and I remained seated while all the wedding guests came up and blessed us with sprinkling rice on our heads and giving of a few gifts, accompanied with several pictures. This went on for an hour or two, I’m not really sure how long, but long enough for my foot to keep falling asleep. Sitting cross-legged on a small wooden stool isn’t that great for circulation.

After the blessings were all done, we changed into white clothes (kurta for me), and did some of the ‘fun’ games. These included pouring more rice on each other’s heads, colored Styrofoam balls (symbolism?) and beads. The Styrofoam balls we actually blew in each other’s faces, which was fun since we tried to take the chance away from the other, as well as try to make the other miss with the rice.

My favorite part was the dropping of the rings – one being gold and the other silver – into a jar of water, with us competing to grab the gold ring. The person pulling the gold ring out of the jar is said to be the boss of the relationship. I think I won by 5-4, so it was close, but I came out on top. After several more rounds of photos, we finally got to get some food around 11 oclock, and then went back to the hotel after an exhausting day, and we still had one more thing for the morning.

Dec 15 – The Puja – Morning after

The Puja is a series of prayers led by the same main priest, or Brahman, from the wedding but takes place at the home of the bride. There was a shrine set up in their living room, with all of the family sitting around spectating. Puji and I sat on one rug while her parents sat on another, and the priest had us go through several rituals involving sprinkling rice and flowers on the shrine, smashing 5 coconuts in between 5 stories of various Hindu gods, with the last coconut containing a flower, which is said to be a good omen.

After the ceremony ended, we went downstairs to have lunch, and then my dad headed back to the hotel. He had a 3-1/2-hour car ride back to Hyderabad to make his evening flight to Dubai/Dallas/St. Louis with the multi-hour drive to Charleston from there. I was so happy to have him come with me to experience the adventure and take part in the wedding.

After my dad left, Puji, Shweta and I went back to the hotel to rest, as we were all exhausted. From the long wedding day and the lengthy Puja ceremony. Ended up staying in for dinner, too, as Shweta had a 9am flight from Hyderabad and an unholy wakeup time in order to start the trip to Hyderabad to make it there in time.

Last Day in Khammam

Our last day in Khammam started with a late breakfast for Chetan, Puji, and myself. We then hopped in the car with her parents to make a few house visits, the first of which was to her uncle Ramesh and aunt Devi. Had some lunch, looked through wedding photos of their daughter Neetu and her husband Seshu while their little daughter, Jai, was grabbing everyone’s attention with her little giggle and persistent smile.

After leaving there we went to see Vishnu’s grandmother at the age of 97 years young. She was a very sweet woman, and happy to see Puji and to meet me. Not able to move around very much for very understandable reasons, she had to be coached how to say my name (as Americans have difficulty saying Indian names, some Indians have trouble saying American names).

We took some pictures and said our goodbye’s, and made it over to Vishnu’s uncle’s house. After having some lunch at Ramesh and Devi’s (Neetu’s parents) house, Chetan and I stopped by the hotel so I could pack up and return with all my things for the drive to Hyderabad and flight to Delhi for the start of the northern India tour of Delhi, Jaipur, and Agra.

The internet where I am (Jaipur) is pretty slow, so I’ll put pictures up when I can.

It is 5:39am 12/14 in India, here’s the URL for a live stream of the wedding ceremony starting around 6:15-6:30am CST:

http://enetlives.com/pujithathomas

12/12/2016 – 12/13/2016 (figured the dates would be useful)

12/12 – Today we slept in a little had breakfast, then sat around watching TV and napping to recover from all the late nights and full days. Watched the ending of Top Gun and a Liam Neeson movie called Nonstop (about a plane hijacking, so maybe not the best idea). Chetan and Harshik stopped by while we were having a late lunch and joined us. Was a good move on Chetan and Harshik’s part to come by since they got a free lunch. They said it was a little warm to go out to the fort that afternoon, so they left and my dad and I went back to the room to relax. After a while we started feeling bold so we went for a short walk outside. By short walk, I literally mean about two blocks either way on the same street from the hotel. BUT that was our first street crossing by ourselves, so we were proud. That night we went to dinner with Chetan, Puji, and their aunt at Taksh, where we actually ordered “American Chop Suey”. We just couldn’t resist the name. tasty food, good ice cream for dessert, and then called it a night.

12/13 – The day after (today as I’m typing this) is the night before the wedding. Puji went through the Mehndi ritual where her hands, forearms, and feet were covered in intricate henna tattoos, and had a small photo shoot in her parents’ apartment, which I found out about once I arrived and was then instructed to take part. I’ll get those pictures up sometime, soon, but now it is time for bed. All the travel, all the shopping, and all the waiting and it’s almost finally here. I have my clothes laid out for an early start (there is a ritual for which I have to go to her relative’s house at 6am), but get to rest before heading to the wedding hall. I’ll try to post more pictures sometime soon after the wedding!

Touring with Chetan and Swami

After breakfast, Chetan took us to see some more of the town. We saw a mix of Christian, Hindu, and Muslim temples and churches, all existing just fine in close proximity to the other. It is impressive how in India all of these religions exist in the same space, yet seem to get along. Much like how America started out, India really is a melting pot of cultures.

While driving around, Chetan had Swami (our driver) take us to a small temple off the beaten path on a small hill with a view of the city, with Karunagiri in the distance. I can’t remember the name of the temple, but here are some pictures of us with Swami with the city in the background. We got a picture with Swami.

Myself, Swami, and my dad

Karunagiri in the distance (gold roof)

Top of the small hilltop temple

After some pictures and the small temple, Chetan took us to visit his Grandma (unfortunately didn’t take any pictures, but will have some with her from the wedding). This was he and Puji’s Dad’s mom, and a VERY sweet woman. Chetan had to translate, but it is amazing how even without being able to understand each other’s words, we could tell she was thrilled for us to have stopped by we immediately felt welcome as family.

Lunch at Puji’s Parents House

In all honesty, was the best meal of the whole trip. Had several different types of curries – chicken, deer, eggplant, egg – some dal (a vegetable soup-like dish, can be poured over rice or just eaten like soup), with some curd (yogurt) to be mixed in with rice to lessen the heat of food. My dad and I kept the curd close to our seats for easy access in case something got too hot.

I only had the chicken and deer curries along with the dahl, but those filled me up until I could eat no more. Indian food is traditionally eaten with the hands, so they get fairly oily and messy. To help clean the hands after a meal, a small bowl with hot water and a slice of lime helps cut the oil from the hands and leaves you citrus-y fresh.

After finishing lunch there were more friends and some family that stopped by to say hi, and we got Puji’s dad to bring out some old family photos! So we spent the early afternoon digesting the delicious meal and looking over some photos from Puji’s childhood, her parents’ wedding, and of her aunts, uncles, cousins, including some of the embarrassing childhood variety. There was even a picture of her grandfather with the prime minister of India! Funfact – her dad said this man (whom I’m sorry to not remember his name) fluently spoke 17 Definitely makes me feel like a slacker for still trying to master English.

Lord Laxminarasimha Swami Temple

After looking through all of the pictures, Vishnu (Puji’s dad) took Puji, my dad, and myself out to show us some more places in town. After a couple switchbacks in the road climbing a hill, we arrived at Lord Laxminarasimha (honestly can’t pronounce that one) Swami Temple. This place had a great view of Khammam, and reminded me of Elephant Rocks State Park how it seemed to be built on top of huge boulders.

While we were walking around and taking in the sights we came across another family visiting the hilltop temple and their young daughter came up to my dad and asked where we were from. The young ones definitely seem to not have any qualms about coming up to someone who is obviously a foreigner and asking where they are from. The innocence of a child’s curiosity is quite refreshing, plus a great ice breaker and conversation starter. Turns out the mother of the family even has a brother who live in California – small world! After visiting with them for a few minutes, was asked to take a picture (below).

Sports Complex

After visiting with the family and taking our last pictures, Vishnu took us to a nearby sports complex for a couple stops. We saw one Puji’s early tennis courts that she played on, got to see a cricket team practicing in nets (basically batting cages) to which I got to bowl and didn’t completely embarrass myself, walked through a small farmer’s market, got fresh coconut water, tried sugarcane juice, and then stopped at a “Hot Chips” stand for a variety of flavors as Puji was picking them out. Some reminded me of pork rinds, some hot fries, and some were completely different than what we have in the states.

Dinner

For dinner, we were joined by Puji and her father at the hotel restaurant, and then came up to the room to visit afterwards, bringing with them a bottle of Seagram’s 100 Pipers Scotch. We each had a few glasses – some neat, some with soda water – and enjoyed some quality time with Puji and her dad. We visited until around midnight when everyone started to tire, and Puji and her dad headed home and my dad and I crashed after another full day of sight-seeing.

New Hotel – Hotel S Park

The hotel at which we are staying while in Khammam is apparently owned by a good friend of Vishnu, Puji’s dad, so we are getting the VIP treatment! We were set up in a suite room with a king bed, so it takes us back to when I was little and we would stay at my Grandma and Grandpa Starr’s house. Back then my dad and I would share the hide-a-bed couch in the basement, which I had dubbed the Bat Cave. I’m just a bit bigger now, so if I would roll around and kick in my sleep now, he would feel it a bit more compared with back then. So it is a bit nostalgic….in India. The living room has a couch, two chairs and a desk, TV’s in both rooms, and the windows getting a nice look out over the city from the 4^th This morning we had breakfast with Puji’s dad and the owner of the hotel. Every time we were asked if we would like something else to eat or drink there would be a slew of orders coming from the owner to the wait staff of what to do. The amount of hospitality and general feeling of welcoming we have experienced everywhere we’ve been has been so wonderful. We are very thankful for all of the hospitality.

Living room

Bathroom

Bedroom

Karunagiri Church

After breakfast, Vishnu took us around Khammam to see some sights, the first being Karunagiri Church, a local Catholic church and school. It is surprising how many Christian churches are here in Khammam, in a country where there only 2% of the population are Christian. There were lots of kids playing soccer, cricket, and just running around in general on the grounds we drove through on the way to the sanctuary. It is customary to take your shoes off before entering into a temple, church, I would presume any place of worship, so we have followed suit. The church was beautiful inside, with large stained glass windows or a mural on each wall. In addition to the walls, the entire ceiling was painted to resemble clouds with various angels around.

After gawking at the paintings everywhere inside, we had some kids come up and ask us where we were from and then if we would mind taking a picture with them. We’ve noticed kids are very eager to ask us what country we are from and what brought us to India. Evidently not many foreigners come to Khammam, so they are just curious and feel like asking. After taking some pictures, a couple of them asked me if I had Facebook and if they could add me. So I can say I have some new Facebook official friends from Khammam, Telangana, India!

Vishnu’s Liquor Store

After saying goodbye to the kids and introducing ourselves to two nuns who came up (probably wondering what brought so many of the kids inside while others were outside playing), we drove a few minutes to stop by one of Vishnu’s liquor stores. Liquor stores are heavily regulated by the Indian government, but luckily business has been doing well for him. He showed us the shop and we got to take a look at all the different brands he has in stock – several of which I had never heard of before. However, Budweiser still had a sizeable pile of cases in the stockroom. My dad was on a mission to from his golf buddies to find something to bring back for them to try. Browsing the shelves one caught his eye by which the name alone shouted “pick me” – Golfer’s Shot.

He picked it up and said he would love to buy it, but Vishnu just replied “why pay, it is my shop”, and just gave it to him, instead. I think Vishnu got a call from Puji complaining that we were taking too long going around town and needed to get back since we were traveling to Bhadrachalam for her cousin’s wedding reception.

Leaving for Bhadrachalam

We made it back the hotel to grab a change of clothes for the reception, and hopped on the road for the 2-hour drive. On the way to Puji’s hometown, Bhadrachalam , Puji’s dad had arranged for us to stop by one of the largest Christian churches in the state to look around: Andrew’s Church. We got a tour of the church while people were outside decorating for Christmas. Serving a parish of around 5,000 people, it can easily hold several hundred people at a time. After getting the tour of the place, we were introduced to one of the priests and talked for a bit, before he led us up to the alter to offer us a blessing.

Getting a blessing from the priests at St. Andrew’s Church

This was a very welcome surprise to be given a tour of such a nice church (second one, at that) and be offered a blessing from the priest. After receiving our blessing and my dad was given a church calendar, we hopped back in the car to continue on to Bhadrachalam.

Other sites along road

We stopped at a hotel owned by a good friend of Puji’s dad (he seemed to know people everywhere we go!) to change into our clothes for the reception. Before we went into the hotel to change, her dad brought me across the street to see the tennis court where Puji first learned how to play. For the folks who don’t know, Puji is very fine tennis player. That doesn’t mean a whole lot coming from me, but she played on scholarship while at UMSL (D-II) and was team captain, playing number 1 for a time. My goal is to someday be able to at least make it fun for her to play against me. So it was cool to see the court on which she started her playing career.

Bhadrachalam Temple

After everyone got changed we were on the road yet again, but had one other stop before the reception – the Bhadrachalam Temple. The temple dates back to the mid 1700s, and was originally built by a man by the name Kancharla Gopanna. It is said he used tax money belonging to the government to construct the temple without government permission and was imprisoned in the dungeon at Golconda Fort (which we visited while in Hyderabad). The Sultan (Muslim ruler over India) was repaid the tax money used to fund the temple construction and Gopanna was released.

Badrachalam attracts hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world each year that come to the temple to worship. Pictures aren’t allowed inside, so unfortunately I can’t share anything there, but it was very cool to walk around and see all the people who had come to worship. There were priests that would lead prayers at each shrine, a lady with a microphone leading a group in the middle of the temple, and then people who would just walk around and worship by themselves. We were taken into the main chamber (got the special guest treatment and got to cut in line). Inside the main chamber was an idol of one of the Hindu gods that was adorned with gold and jewels, that has been there since the 1700s. regardless of religion, it is a cool feeling being at such a holy place that holds such an important place in a person’s religion.

At another shrine, my dad and I had cloths and flowers draped around our necks and given a sweet as gifts just given to us since we were guests (another great example of Indian hospitality). After this, then we made it to our final destination of the wedding reception.

Puji’s cousin’s wedding reception – Rohith and Lakshmi

The wedding reception was very similar to that of Chaitu and Shanti’s: lots of family around taking lots of pictures while the bride and groom sat in a couch on stage as people would come up and pose for pictures. Rohith is Puji’s cousin on her mom’s side of the family, and was kind of like a family reunion for them. After visiting with some of her family, we went out back to the food area and had some some paneer curry, chichen curry, fried cauliflower, rice, and two sweets for dessert (one of which was jalebi). Everything was served on a plate made of pressed leaves, so after use can be easily decomposed.

Checked out the Wedding Venue

Consistent with the theme so far on the Bhadrachalam trip, we had one more stop to make before arriving back at the hotel – to check out the wedding venue for Wednesday. I had fallen asleep in the car since it was around 1230 am at this point, and awoke to see us pulling into a place that I recognized as not being the hotel. There had recently been a wedding ceremony there, so the stage was still set with flowers and the couch for the bride and groom to sit for pictures, and all the chairs were still setup for all the guests. I heard Puji and her dad say this place was chosen because it is one of few that can accommodate the number of guests that were invited to the wedding, which is around 2,000 (that’s three zero’s). I thought I had been to some big weddings in the past, never guessed that the largest one I’ll probably ever go to would be my own. Talk about pressure not to look or do anything stupid while up there. Hopefully I’ll get a rundown of what to do and what not to do during the ceremony so I don’t embarrass myself too much.

Hotel breakfast

The day started off same as the last with a good breakfast in the hotel, complete with coffee and tea. Coffee here is very common of the instant variety. Instant coffee in the US has a bad rap for not having as much flavor, but when prepared with equal parts water and milk with some sugar added, it is delicious (more of a sweeter coffee, but that very much satisfies my sweet tooth).

More wedding shopping

We finished up the wedding shopping with getting my dad some leather sandals and Puji’s brother something to wear for the ceremony, and I finished picking out 3 shirt and pants combinations per Puji’s mom’s instructions. After getting the two kurtas for the wedding, Mrs. Bandi insisted on me picking out 3 additional pairs of shirts and pants. Her parents have been beyond great hosts, really treating us to an awesome time of showing us where not only Puji grew up, but where they and their families grew up and other interesting spots along our way as we come across. I don’t know if I’ll be able to compete with such an experience for when they come and visit Puji and I in St. Louis, but I can’t wait to show them the sights around the Show Me State and other nearby parts of the US to try to return the favor.

KFC!!!

After leaving the mall we were on our way to pick out some jewelry, but first it was time to grab some lunch. We did a round of everyone asking what everyone wanted to eat, and so upon being asked what I would like to eat I did what any good tourist from America would say while in India – KFC! I’ve mentioned before that there are several American fast food restaurants in India (McDonald’s, KFC, Burger King, TGI Fridays) and have heard that they tailor their menu to fit the tastes of their market. Seems like a logical business move, almost too logical to actually be true. In the mall where we did most of our shopping, the first sign for the BK Lounge (Burger King) advertised the Whopper, but available in vegetarian and mutton (goat), along with some changes in spices, too, I’m sure. Of all the restaurants making the decision to open franchises in India, KFC always seemed to get the highest reviews from our friends who have tried it in both places, so that is where we went.

Just a KFC in an Indian mall, nothing out of the ordinary

Why can’t prices in America be like this? $12.26 to feed 4 people!

The staple menu option was the same – fried chicken – but the combos and sides were all different. I ordered a 5 in 1 Rice Box, which is like a combo meal with a couple things inside a meal box, and on the first bite of the chicken I could taste the difference. As with other Indian foods, there just seems to be more spices and flavor. In the box meal I ordered was also a chocolate desert, basically a small moonpie, which definitely won my heart over. So I will say it here on the internets – I like Indian KFC better than American KFC. There’s also the surprising fact of just how cheap it was. For Puji’s mom, Puji, my dad, and myself the total came out to 827 INR (Indian Rupees). Converted to USD that comes out to $12.26. Talk about bang for your buck! Where were these sorts of deals when I was in college?

Jewelry Shopping

It is pretty common knowledge that there is a lot of gold involved in Indian weddings, so I wasn’t too surprised that there would be some of this involved, but was taken back by the amount that was available in the jewelry stores that happened to line both sides of the street. That is a hint that we had to cross the street, which was the most nerve-wracking crossing I’ve ever done. Luckily we made it, and I have the video to prove it!

It is customary for the bride and groom to present each other with a golden chain, so we purchased those along with a black-beaded necklace, called a mangalsutra, for the bride from the groom’s family. Similar to a wedding ring, this necklace indicates the woman is married. The necklace itself is very pretty with gold and diamonds, but I’ll wait to put up a picture until the actually wedding day (4 days away!!).

Shilparamam

After we finished the jewelry shopping, Puji asked if we wanted to get out and walk around a little at a site called Shilparamam that she always liked that had some culture to it. As tired as I was, it’s hard to say no to something like this. For several weeks leading up to the trip I kept saying how I wanted to have Indian street food, so when we parked and saw there was a stand with a guy leaning over a hot pan with ingrediants all around his cart that was further surrounded by other hungry customers, we quickly walked over and got in line. Here’s a video watching him cook which was fascinating, and the food was very good (there’s a theme with the food, I’ll try to use some different adjectives). We tried two dishes – dahi puri and chaat (which is a generic term describing a savory snack, typically found at street vendors. Wiki).

The Street food vendor outside of Shilparamam

Chaat – a chickpea dish

A small shrine outside of the park

Vendors lined up inside

Me, Puji, and Mrs. Bandi outside of the village museum

When our food was finished we found our way into Shilparamam (like a park/fair) to walk around. It was night time so we missed out on some of the sights, but it still had a good number of people walking around and enjoying the scenery on the park benches as we walked around. It reminded of Charleston’s Dogwood Azalea Festival with it resembling a permanent fairground complete with several vendor stalls, playground to occupy the children when their parents get tired of them, and even had an outdoor museum depicting life in old Indian villages (and life currently in more rural villages). Unfortunately, there was a vendor strike going on so we didn’t get to see all of what Shilparamam had to offer, but it was still impressive and a good call by Puji to stop and walk around.

Designs would be drawn on the ground outside homes as decoration

Inside a pottery house

Example of a scene during a Sankranthi Festival

Blacksmith

Highway traffic

My dad and I were looking forward to the highway trip because of course it would be more open road and just cruising as opposed to dodging everyone else on the road and the people who just figure you’ll stop if they jump out in front of your car. Well we were sort of right. while it was more open, the horns were still used very common as communication to say “I’m over here” or “I’m passing you” or maybe even “get out of my way and do it now”. This was especially the case when we got off of the actual highway and onto a more rural two-lane road for the second half of the trip to Khammam after stopping for a late dinner. Here we had more twisty roads with people being much bolder on when they felt like passing someone than you’d see in the US. It wasn’t uncommon to see someone finish overtaking a car and getting out of your lane what seemed like 20 yards (if not that, it was well close enough to encourage me to have a firm grip on the handle of the door). Alas we survived and arrived at our hotel in Khammam, Hotel S Park.

Golconda Fort

The first full day in Hyderabad! Today we started out like any normal day in a hotel – complimentary breakfast! Had some small sammiches, idli with chutney, pongol, toast, and masala chai. The literal translation for Chai is “tea”, and masala is a mixture of spices. When people order a Chai Tea from a coffee shop (which is basically like ordering “queso cheese” at a Mexican restaurant) this is essentially what is being ordered, except this is black tea brewed with milk and water with spices added. MUCH better than any version I’ve gotten at a coffee shop or made with the concentrate (no big surprise there).

After finishing breakfast, Puji and her mom stayed behind in the hotel while her dad to my dad and I to Golcolda Fort. This was also our first introduction to Hyderabad traffic in daylight. It is hard to do it justice with words, but bumper-to-bumper in the literal sense is pretty close. Cars (called 4-wheelers) are considered a luxury and motorcycles and scooters (2-wheelers) are the norm. the 2-wheelers provide easy transportation, plus it makes it easy for the riders to zip in and around the cars while in traffic, which they did constantly. It made for a worn out spot where we wished the brake pedal was in the passenger seat when myself or my dad sat there. Puji’s dad definitely got a kick out of my dad and my squeamishness while trying to get accustomed to the ways of the road.

After about a 30-minute drive, we arrived at Golconda. The entire fort is a little over a square mile spread across an entire hilltop, rising 130 meters from the base to the top. Golconda was initially a mud fort beginning construction in the mid 1100’s, then fortified while under Sultan rule between the 14^th and 17^th centuries, and also played hosts to the British royalty during their occupation. We had a tour guide with us for the history lesson and to take group pictures which helped soak in some of the history and fill up the memory card.

Me, my dad, and Puji’s dad

Along with the sheer size of the entire fort complex, there is some impressive masonry done with the acoustics of some of the chambers. As we entered into the first dome chamber, we looked up to find the ceiling having several large dimples in the ceiling. When someone claps their hands standing in the center of this chamber, the sound reverberates and can actually be heard at the ‘Bala Hisar’ pavilion at the top of the fort – almost a kilometer away. Pretty cool early burglar alarm.

Going to the Mall

After looking all around the lower part of the fort (there were a lot of stairs to climb to the top, and we’ll use the excuse of not having enough time for not making the climb to the top) we went to one of malls for some wedding clothes shopping. First stop was the food court where we got some Punjabi food (Punjab is a northern region of India, on the southern border of the Himalayas). As with most of the food we’ve had so far: had lots of flavor and I guess our hosts are taking it easy on us because nothing was TOO spicy for us. I got two wedding kurtas (think these but with a pale American in it) and my dad also got one. Fit really well, but I’ll wait to show those pictures until the actual wedding.

Chaitu and Shanti’s Wedding Reception

One of the nice things about this trip is that we have some friends who also got married while we are over here. Hindu weddings have the date and times chosen according to an auspicious date found by looking at the birthdate and location of both the bride and groom, so it is very possible that a wedding can occur at an odd time compared to what you typically in western weddings. Chaitu and Shanti’s wedding ceremony had the start time of 1:30am, but because it was so late, they had the reception beforehand, so we went early to see them before Puji’s mom took my dad and I back to the hotel because we are wussies and were suffering from jetlag. Luckily, Puji’s mom knew better than to just take us straight back to the hotel, so since we had to cross from the western side to the eastern side of Hyderabad and took the outer road along the perimeter to get there, she decided to have the driver take us through the middle and show us a few spots along the way.

Pictures from our friends Chaitu and Shanti’s wedding

Night trip through Hyderabad

As tired as we were (I had fallen asleep waiting to leave for the wedding and took a short nap on the way there, too) Puji’s mom had us mesmerized with the sites of Hyderabad at night. Our first destination was Charminar, and to get there we had to go through Laad Bazaar. As cool as Charminar was, it was hard to get over the business of the Laad Bazaar. Picture any action movie where there is a chase scene through a middle eastern (or Indian in this case) bazzar with open-air shops lining the streets that are half filled with carts holding fruits and veggies with their owners shouting the night’s prices, but add to it the road being full of people driving 4-wheelers (cars) with 2-wheelers (motorbikes) filling in the gaps. At the risk of sounding pretentious, I would say there was a definite cacophony of sound with the mix of all of the different sounding horns (some would make the General Lee iconic horn sound like a calming bird’s chirp) and the shop/cart owners trying to attract potential customers. Add the smell of some street food vendors, and it was an incredible sight.

Charminar is at the center of the bazaar occupying a roundabout and consisting of four pillars (“Char” and “Minar” translate to four towers in English). It dates back to the very beginning of Hyderabad’s cityhood, back in 1591. It is a mosque built in commemoration of the end of a plague that had befell the city during the reign of the 5^th sultan of the Qutub Shahi dynasty. A cool potential fun-fact about Golconda Fort and Charminar – it is believed there is a tunnel stretching from Golconda Fort to Charminar (9 km away) that the royals would have used to escape if the fort were to ever come in danger).

After an hour delay on a 14.5 hour flight from Dallas to Dubai on which we flew through the airspaces of Canada, Greenland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Iran before landing in the UAE, rushing through the Dubai airport to make our 3.5 hour connecting flight taking us to Hyderabad, we landed safe and sound at the Rajiv Ghandi International Airport (albeit tired and feeling the lack of sleep). Making it through immigration was a breeze. I started to get a little tense after it took much longer than I was expecting to claim my luggage, but my bags were finally spotted and we made our way out with all our belongings accounted for.

There might be a tendency for me to talk about food (I’m a big fan), so with that disclaimer made, the first food place I saw was Subway! The menu looked a little different, but there it was! Not shortly after I spotted KFC and McDonalds! Those last 2 are on the docket to try and see the differences between the locations back in the Colonies and here, but not yet.

After seeing the currency conversion place was closed for the night, we went out to the pickup area and quickly spotted Puji and her family. It is so nice to finally be able to meet her parents in person, they were very excited to meet my Dad and I, and we’re very much looking forward to spending the next couple weeks with them.

After a quick introduction to India traffic (which is a topic for another upcoming post) we made it to the Swagath Residency (couldn’t find a website) hotel to get showered and have some biryani and a mint chicken dish of which I don’t remember the name. Both were extremely flavorful with lots more spices than what I’ve tried in St. Louis. I suppose it is worth mentioning that on the wikipedia page for the dish of Biryani, the picture is of “Hyderabad chicken dum biryani,” so we are in the right place to try it. If you haven’t ever tried Indian cuisine, I would recommend starting with biryani and maybe a chicken tikka masala. Some of the ingredients in biryani (according to the recipe I found online) are basmati rice, mint, coriander leaves, onions, ginger and garlic paste, chili powder, turmeric powder, saffron, and some others. All baked together to make a spicy and flavorful dish with flavors you don’t normally get together in American main course cooking.

Tomorrow (actually today as I’m typing this) we are going to do some shopping for wedding attire and to see some of the city. I’ll put up some pictures and links to where we visit as I get a chance to. Looking forward to telling all about our adventure!

Greetings, Comrades! As a Tom Clancy fan, its pretty cool to know we’re cruising through Russian airspace. However, I don’t think anyone down there has the same appreciation of The Hunt for Red October as I do, or the outcome of the 1980 Olympics…

The flight has been really good so far, Emirates was a good airline for my first international travel. Food was impressive – orzo salad, lamb stew, cherry chocolate something for dessert, a stick of string cheese, and a Jack Daniels and ginger ale to wash it down. All jokes aside, it is pretty awesome to be watching the sunrise from 33,000 ft above Russia.

Estimated to have 4 hours left until landing in Dubai