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 4th 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.
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.
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.
An American in India 