There was a special moment during this trip when I felt good. We all were travelling from Ananthpur to Hyderabad, We were accompanying the Groom’s family troop in a mini bus. I was surrounded by my friends, Subbu,Rahul , Sunil and Sush. I was listening to some song on my iPod which I had more or less not used from few months. A nice breeze from the window with some movie playing in the vehicle. I have no clue why this moment was special for me, may be because I had a genuine smile on my face after long time, may be I wasn’t feeling too lonely for the first time in few months. All I remember is that I was enjoying that very moment.
Venk’s marriage was a long-awaited event. Venki had informed us about the dates and the Venue very well in advance. Venki had a small function in Kurnool on 18th early morning, 18th evening was the reception at Ananthpur. Marriage was on 19th in Ananthpur and finally a reception in Hydrabad. This trip was one of the worst planned trip in long time. Even the day before reception, We had done no booking. Me and Rahul had off on 17th and so I was in 114 early on Wednesday. I didn’t get involved much but plans of going by car was cancelled and around 1 week before the event, Subbu booked flight tickets for return. Car being ruled out, we booked bus tickets to Kurnool starting 17th night. When I got involved, things changed. We had long discussion on the departure time and consequently We cancelled these tickets just hours before the journey and decided to skip Kurnool and head directly to Ananthpur. The worst part of this mess in plans hours before journey was we left out Anoop who was already travelling to Kurnool from Coimbatore while we were cancelling everything.
So we set out on 18th morning. We went in some APSRTC bus which was super slow. We got the first taste of Andra when we stopped for lunch at a dhaba. The whole journey of that tomato masala from tongue to tummy through the esophagus was a trail of fire. Tears rolled out to put off the fire. Welcoming us at the Venue were posters of Venki with his fiancée. The groom’s hadn’t reached yet, We being the groom’s friends were given a warm welcome. Venki entered the hall with a ribbon cutting ceremony which was followed by spot the bride competition.There was a HUGE basket and a giant heart-shaped and Venki got it right that She was hidden in the giant heart.
Ananthpur Reception
Two words that could sum up all the events, excitement,the liveliness of this evening was ‘Jolly boys’. The reception was electrified and made memorable by this hyper active entertainment group. The singers were really good and the liveliness was contagious. They made the whole crowd get involved into their act. The highlights of the evening was Venki’s dance with his fiancée.. Sush requested a kannada song and the singer surprisingly sang it wonderfully. Basanthi joined us for the reception.
The Marriage
The marriage was grand and traditional. I saw many traditions which I hadn’t seen before. It appeared fun and the bride and the groom were blissfully happy doing everything everybody was asking them to do with a grin on their face. We all were happy to be there, to see Venki enter into a new phase in his life. Anoop and Basanth went back to bangalore the same day. We all had to get to Hyderabad the same day, Our initial plan was to go by bus or hire some transport which we can use in Hyderabad too. We finally changed our mind and decided to join the baraath in their bus only, Since many of Venki’s relatives were relatively familiar now, we all thought it would be fun to join them and convenient for us too. With so many ppl, the journey was indeed fun. I went into a state of bliss during this journey at one point of time. We reached Hyderabad early morning by 4ish.
Hyderabad
Our stay in Hyderabad started with a BANG.. literally.. the lock of our hotel room got screwed up. Me , Rahul and Subbu were struck inside our room and the hotel guys had to break open the door which again took some 2 hours of loud bang bang. The reception was on Sunday and so we had a whole saturday for Hyderabad darshan. We had many things in mind but the first on our list was the Fort golkonda. Venk’s uncle gave us a vehicle with driver so that we could see around. We hired a guide and he showed around the whole fort, The whole fort is so huge and so much of walking around, It took us more than a couple of hours to come back to where we started from. We loved the place as its such a picturesque place and Sush and Subbu clicked some million pictures. It started raining when we came back and our plans for rest of the evening were washed out. The vehicle was needed back and so we headed back to the hotel. The drainage of Hy’bad is one of the most mismanaged system in the world I think, Just few mins of rain resulted in almost floods and total chaos. When we had almost reached hotel, we decided not to call it a day yet. We gave up the vehicle and caught a rickshaw to Hussain Sagar Lake. It had rained a lot and it was almost closing time and so there were almost no ppl. We took a boat ride in that lake and Buddha Statue looked majestic in the night. The next stop was the most famous Hyderabadi Biryani, We went to Paradise Hotel and had a feast there. Subbu was the happiest of the lot having the mutton biryani while rest of us had to be content with the veggie. From there we went to Venki’s Apartment. The newly weds were on their way and we were there at his apartment to welcome them. The rituals and all the halla gulla lasted till some 2 in the morning and we went back to our hotel.
Hyderabad Reception
The Hyderabad reception was the final thing in our agenda. The reception was in the evening and so we had time to explore a bit more of Hy’bad. We decided that Hy’bad trip would be incomplete without seeing Charminar. We paid a visit to the reception hall and asked for directions. We decided to travel in a bus and it was a good but long experience. It turned out that charminar was indeed on the other side of Hy’bad and we took close to 1.5 hours to reach there with moderate traffic conditions. The Charminar is a great monument but again nothing special to mention about it I feel. We went to the chudi bazaar as Sush wanted to buy some girly stuff. This street reminded me so much about of the khan el khalili of Cairo. We headed back to the reception on time. When we reached the hall , we were able to see almost the same crowd of Ananthpur. The biggest difference here was the Orchestra. The acoustic of the hall was pathetic and the choice of songs of this group was making it worse. He was singing some unknown old hindi songs. We all endured that music for couple of hours and went back by mid night.
Venki’s wedding will be a thing we will cherish for really long time. We were present at every aspect of the marriage. We got to know so many of his relatives. This experience personally for me pushed me out of a depression and hence very memorable. I hope this couple live happily ever after.