Sunday, May 31, 2009

Summer trip to Adoni for Latha's wedding

This summer, 9th and 10th of May 2009, we had been to Adoni, a mid sized town which belongs to the Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh.

Well, you may ask why that place and on top of it why at that time? Latha (Soujanaya's maternal cousin) got wedded to Sri. Phanibushan and Adoni being their native place, the wedding was arranged there. The wedding was on the 9th and 10th of May, but Soujanya had left to the party a couple of days early with Pooja, Lavanya and Sanjana, while Harish and myself joined the function on the 9th. Harish and myself stayed @ the Hotel Bhima Residency in an A/C room which was pretty close to the wedding hall and acted as a cooling waterhole to beat the heat.

The wedding went pretty well and gave us a chance to witness the Andhra style of wedding tradition. It had pretty much the same rituals but with it's own flavours. The Andhra style food preparation was a delight but the take away was the 'Mandige', a pretty rare North-Karnataka dish which only few folks from Bellary know how to prepare.

Other highlights apart from the wedding was the simmering heat of the summer and I was told that we were running 42 deg C the last few days over there. A few of us took some time off the marriage hall and visited the market area of Adoni. Memorable were the gullies of the market where we saw the makings of 'Kadlepuri' which are a kind of rice puffings used which in great quantities for a lot of dishes. One of the primary ingredients of Bhel Puri as well! Check out the video, along with pictures. We stopped by at a Soda-parlour in the middle of the town and must have tasted about all the different varieties available over there. That shop was supposed to be the Soda-capital of Adoni, serving various flavours.

The last important or not-so-important information was that on our return trip on the 10th of May, Soujanya surprised me with a Birthday cake cutting ceremony on the Train, along with Harish, Kiran, Lavanya, Sanjana and Pooja. A very special moment that will be there for a long time to come!.

A few photos of the event captured through the eyes of my camera.

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