As usual, the photos that we took can be found on Flickr. Some of the photos used in this blog post were taken by friends of ours or the wedding photographers and don't appear on Flickr. Those will be noted with credit when used.
Day 5 Event 1: Visit to the Kandi 'Farmhouse' and Temple
When we got to this item on the wedding events schedule we really didn't know what to expect. We knew we were going to the 'family farmhouse' and that there would be some praying and ceremonies, but couldn't really envision what that meant. A bus picked us up at the Secunderabad Club and drove more than an hour into the countryside, winding onto smaller and smaller roads and through smaller and eventually very small towns indeed. However, when we arrived, we found that 'farmhouse' undersold the family housing and temple complex by a substantial margin. It turned out that while it may have been a farmhouse at some point, the family had been on an upward trend for generations and had converted most of the original farm into structures and gardens, with a few mango trees and the like retained as a flavor of the past. Apparently a lot of the housing in it is 'rented' just for contributing labor to keeping the place up and is a benefit to low-income folks in the area.
This is not the complex - this is the integrated temple built by the family at the corner of the complex
The first event after arriving was prayers at the family temple, which went on through several stages for an hour or so. Again, most of the prayers and chants are in Sanskrit and even the participants often only have limited ideas about exactly what's going on, and we had even less as we'd get clued in by family members standing nearby from time to time. Some local priests handled much of it and a much higher level priest stopped in for some key bits. The temple is dedicated to a few sort of standard deities and also the family's chosen or patron deity (of education - I believe selected in response to the opportunities and success that education had brought the family - a choice we heartily support).
I didn't keep track of which deity was which, but this may the family god, patron of education. The local priests were said to be eagerly anticipating a branch of the India Institute of Technology opening just down the road, as students would be likely to seek out a temple dedicated to education and sharply improve attendance and donations around the finals. We could see the massive building under construction to house that branch of the university.
The gentleman in the red garment and the gentleman holding the flaming oil oversaw most of the operations
The gentleman with the orange hat in the chair was the high priest and oversaw some apparently critical passages in the prayers for the marriage and family.
After finishing the course of prayers at the temple, we walked across some of the gardens and relocated to the main hall of the central structure of the complex to get some serious praying done. The building could probably have sat 200 people and featured the first literal rolled out red carpet that I may ever have walked upon.
As evidence - here I am standing upon that red carpet outside the main building
Up at the front of the room a smaller shrine had been set up, and they got to work. We were given a cheat sheet discussing the kinds of prayers going on, which was very thoughtful.
After a total of about 4 hours of ceremonies and prayers, it was time for lunch. Lunch was served in a tent outside, with all the serving being done by members of the family, most of whom seemed to be primarily concerned with making sure you ate enough of whatever it was that they were serving. The food was simple and outstanding - or at least the things I tried were - too many to take much of anything in particular. I enjoyed trying the various spicy 'pickles' which are pickled sauces used to liven up other dishes - super pungent and powerful and I admit to eating some of them without bothering to put them on something else. At this point in the trip we knew all the foreigners and numerous members of the family, so it was nice just to eat together and have conversations.
Lunch tent - with the shade the temperature was perfect
I think the bride and groom got a tiny bit of time to their actual selves during lunch
Lunch buffet line, manned principally by cousins of the groom I think
After lunch, there was discussion of a tour of the local area but that never seemed to get off the ground and eventually we all boarded the bus back to the hotel. I think I slept through most of the trip back, which I suspect was not an uncommon choice.
Day 5 Event 2: "Cocktail Dinner"
It should be noted that most of the events in this wedding and reception sequence were both dry (no booze) and vegetarian. That didn't stop them from being complex and delicious meals, and with so many interesting people to talk to we didn't much miss the alcohol either. However, one event was set aside to focus on meat and alcohol, and that was the "cocktail dinner" the evening after the farmhouse trip. To get there we boarded another (smaller) bus from the Secunderabad Club and were driven into the city, where we went to the rooftop patio of a hotel which looked out over some major thoroughfares of the city from a substantial height. This patio had a well-stocked open bar which was compromised somewhat by the fact that the bartender was probably a bellhop by day and was unfamiliar with concepts like 'gin and tonic' so it was best to either stick to things you'd drink neat or request each component of your drink separately and then mix them yourself. We felt this was pretty funny and shared tips with the other foreigners. Fried and grilled appetizers started going around, including chicken tikka, 'chili potato' (sort of like General Tso's chicken if it was potato instead of chicken and had more sriracha in the sauce), 'chili fish' (same deal but fish instead of potato), and a few other things. They were universally delicious and we were hungry so people would eat everything at one table and then go find another table to steal from until more plates came out - good for mingling. I ate a very large quantity of all of the above and enjoyed all of it immensely.
One of very few pictures of the venue taken that night
Parts of an Indian wedding can be a bit political - a way to show off who you can get at your party and mingle with important people. This event had fairly restrictive attendance and the father of the groom went around introducing some of the more important people who'd come. It sounded like they had the equivalent of a US state governor (or maybe a lieutenant governor) and the city district attorney or equivalent among the guests. Not sure why they'd want to meet us, but as long as the appetizers kept coming I wasn't going to complain about it.
The rooftop had statues of deities made out of scrap around the outside edges of the patio
After a good hour or so of appetizers and cocktails, the dinner buffet was served inside the hotel - I checked it out but quickly determined the appetizers remained the most delicious items available and kept my focus there as the evening continued. I believe at some point they turned on music and had a dance floor inside but the conversation and air outside was more attractive and I don't think many people went inside.
When the event downtown wrapped up, it became apparent that the remaining contents of the bar were up for grabs by guests and the foreigners made off with about a case of liquor of several kinds and continued the party back at the Secunderabad Club deep into the night. We'll pick up the next morning when we work a little tourism into the back half of the trip.
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