India Trip Winter 2008

Even though this is a few months late, I'm going to blog a little about my last trip. We (me, my mom, Rukmini, Radha, Chris, Bobby, & Maya) went to India over Christmas. The last time we all traveled together was before I started teaching...the group made the plane ride go by SO much easier than normal. (and the group was helpful for back-up when Radha almost got "detained" by a cow at Heathrow) We had a great time, but it was just WAY TOO short of a trip. The two weeks went by in a flash and we spent so much time moving around there wasn't our usual down time. We barely had enough time to play any serious rounds of cutjoker! My camera died an untimely death early on into the trip, so most of the pictures are from the first couple of days.

Eventhough it was too short of a trip, we still were able to do and see alot...we went straight from Hyderabad (at 3 in the AM) to Bellary Camp in Karnataka (a 12 hour drive or so..maybe more, I can't remember anymore). We spent a week there and me, Chris, Radha, Mommy, and Durganayamma (my grandfather's sister) were able to visit the city of Bijapur. I think at this point, my camera was already broken and Chris' died during this trip. Chinnamama had been there on a tour with our family not that long before, but we forced him to come with us again! That was AWESOME. I had never been there before..the city was built in the 900's and has many of its remains still in tact. You have to climb the stairs in the towers to reach the dome on the top...it's there that you can hear your echo over and over and over. The small steps of the school kids on field trips sounded like elephants!

After a week at Tatagaru's serene farm, a bunch of us made the trip back to AP. We stayed at Ranakka's house, but stopped in Guntur first. While we drove through, the Christian population was very visible. Every home had a lit up giant paper star (plus some borderline tacky light displays...the face of Jesus made out of Christmas lights? Indians..sigh) We made it there on Christmas night and Soujanyakka's family planned a nice feast for us on top of their dhaba. We got to see a lot of family in a little time there! Me, Mommy, Bobby, and my grandparents also stopped at Amaravati and saw the giant Buddha Dhyana they are still in the process of building. They started building this in 2004 and it was almost done by the time we saw it. We were able to get a special connection and the groundskeeper let us go inside the statue! It stands 125 feet tall and is the biggest Buddha statue in India. Inside they are constructing different scenes/panels that represent Buddhist teachings...
We rounded our trip out with a not-so-surprise birthday party for Tatagaru and Bobby. One turned 80 and the other 31.

And then, before I knew it .. we were heading back to Hyderabad. I think it was a 5 hour drive to the airport and we did after dinner at dark so it was chilly. Chintata escorted us and was really protected from the cold! You'll see in the pictures...and sadly, we made it home. Bobby's actual birthday was celebrated all over world (since we were in the plane), but I'm sure he was happy his wife changed her ticket and came back with us. I think I was sick for at least a week after and Rukmini's house got broken into...it took a while to adjust back to the weather and way of life here and I know I wasn't the only one who didn't want to be back. .. but without a doubt, my Daddy was sure happy we had arrived!