Not Quite a Lazy Sunday

Unfortunately a couple of my kurti tops had shrunk in the wash, despite me only using a cold hand wash to clean them. It turns out that the fabric they were stitched from does shrink a lot, so ideally it should soaked overnight before being measured and cut to make garments. The tailors who sewed my outfit obviously didn't do this however, and so the kurtis have shrunk significantly and are now quite difficult to put on and take off, and quite restrictive to wear!!

I therefore arranged with Basha the tailor, from the SEDS production centre, to meet up with him in Penukonda so that he could show me which were good shops to buy some outfits from, so that he could help to translate so that I could ask for what I wanted, and so that he could tell me if it was good fabric or not. Alex asked if he could come along too and see if he could organise to get some shirts made for him, and so on Sunday we had an early-for-SEDS start to the day so that we could finish breakfast, catch the local bus into Penukonda, and meet with Basha.

Some local children came and talked to me while we were waiting for the bus (It was a bit special because normally everyone wants to talk to Alex!)

The bus seemed a daunting prospect, but going into Penukonda was easy because any bus coming from the right would be going towards Penukonda. When the bus arrived, we got on and the conductor motioned me to sit next to him. He practiced his English a little along the journey, and I was also very relieved at how un-crowded the bus was, considering it was market day in Penukonda.

On the bus

Even as we made more stops and gathered more passengers it didn't get too crowded. The noisiest passenger by far was a distressed chicken that was brought on board in a basket - a slightly different chicken-in-a-basket to the 90s pub meal!

Basha met us in the town and took us around a few shops that we would not have found for ourselves, helping Alex first and then me to get what I needed, before we came to Basha's colourful house - getting invited to a wedding along the way - and he invited us in for some refreshment.

View from the tailor shop

Inside the tailor shop with Basha and Alex

We then went out again and Basha took us along a road in Penukonda that is an older part of the town, lined with temples.

We were welcomed inside some places, the first was a kind of Sunday school / Ashram teaching children prayers, music, and devotion to Sai Baba. The adults opened the doors and welcomed us inside, asking the children to line up so that we could take photos, before offering us each some biscuits. Between their minimal English, some friendly gesturing, and Basha translating, we learned that one of the adult instructors knows Rajan and Manil from SEDS, and runs a tea stall near to SEDS in Makalapalli. It is a small area here!

Further down the road at another temple, we were welcomed in again and shown around, and were told some of the history of the temple and compared some Hindu and Jain religious philosophies. It was difficult to keep up with the monk's excellent-but-heavily-accented-and-very-rapid English, but the temple is apparently hundreds of years old and contains some very old and important artefacts.

Our knowledgeable guide to the temple

We also saw Thimmarasu jail, which you can read a little more about here. It was a very beautiful structure from the outside, though I doubt you would have appreciated that if you were imprisoned there...

Inside the jail

Thimmarusu jail, with the Gagan Mahal in the background

Then it was time to return again to Basha's house.

A lot of construction work is going on in Penukonda at the moment

Basha showing us the workshop he has built in a new room on the second level of his house

Basha's wife got the children changed into smart clothes and combed their hair for the wedding, and Basha led Alex, me, and the children to a school ground in Penukonda where the wedding was happening.

Basha's gorgeous little youngest son - he is a real entertainer and enjoyed being the focus of attention!

Basha's lovely and charming oldest son

This was a Muslim wedding, but I guess I got some special treatment as I was allowed into the men's side (the men and women are segregated), albeit in a classroom behind the tent where everyone else was eating. At least I got to share the classroom with Alex, Basha, and his children so I wasn't all on my own though, and we were served biryani and a delicious sweet rice dish called payasam.

Mutton biryani, chicken kebab (so delicious) and payasam, the sweet rice desert, is the yellow stuff in the cup (also extremely delicious!)

After this we returned again to Basha's house for another refreshment, before leaving to head back to SEDS. We unfortunately missed the bus, but Basha helped us to catch a shared autorickshaw back to Maklapalli. You really can fit a lot of people into a tuk tuk!!