Happy Sankranthi!

Happy Sankranthi everyone! Today marks the beginning of the harvest season in India. According to Wikipedia, Sankranthi is the celebration of the sun transitioning into Capricorn on its celestial path. Also, no school today! So we had the day to explore town and find the Sankranthi festivities!

My day began with lunch served on a banana leaf with traditional South Indian food. No utensils- I'm learning how to eat rice and such with my fingers and it is quite fabulous. I'm going to try and bring that back to the U.S. It's like getting to play with your food at every meal. Awesome.

After lunch a group of fellow students and I hopped into a rickshaw to begin our Sankranthi festivities. Actually, we fit 11 people into a 3 person limit vehicle. That was cozy. A quick photo shoot occurred:



After the quick, but crazy rickshaw ride we arrived at Shilparamam, a market in town which often is the grounds of festivals and shows it seems. A group of us went in (for Rs. 20 each. Appx. 40 cents) and split up to wander around. They have all Indian souvenirs one would ever really need. My friend Nina and I shopped around for a bit, pausing for the random crazy things going on. There were painted people singing and dancing and walking through the market, some crazy happening with a man walking around with his neck in a cow's mouth (yes, in a cow's mouth), little girls singing on a stage, and awesome kite flying everywhere. Also, here I know what celebrities feel like in the U.S. I have had my picture taken by soooooo many random Indian folks, I think that if I charged them I would already be rich. It's weird, but I take their pictures in return.





After Shilparamam, the group went on a journey to the lake. Took a rickshaw to the train station, this time only with 9 people, so not quite as crammed. Waited not too long, got on a train, realized it was the wrong train, and had to jump off... while trying to find 2 of ours friends who got into a different car, who we found as the train was pulling off. Oh and then we realized it actually was the right train so felt a little stupid. We finally made it on a train, not the right one, but it got us somewhat close to where we were going. After a long train and rickshaw trip we finally made it to the lake. It was dark by then, and most of the festivities had died down. So we had an amazing dinner and then strolled around the lake area for a while before returning to the train station (where we made at least 1o new Indian friends while waiting for the train). We rode the train to Lingampally, a neighborhood nearby my campus. Then we caught a bus from Lingampally to campus. And I had to ran and jump on it while it was still moving, apparently a common occurrence. Got to campus, rode my bike (with my friend/roomie Ashleigh on the back- another common Indian occurrence) the nice 15-20 minute ride to my dorm, and now am off to bed, after a nice long day full of Sankranthi celebrations and Hyderabad traveling education.