"You have now experienced an Andhra Pradesh Telugu Brahmin Wedding!"

I have had a few opportunities over the last months to see my friends in different contexts. Sally in Malaysia and Thailand, Jodie and Paul in Bangkok, Diane again in Thailand, but seeing Vamshee in his home city was something pretty special. We first met in my kitchen in Darlington during my early years at University; he had long hair and longer, louder opinions. A couple of years ago he brought his mother to visit me in Brisbane, we went to Australia Zoo and she cooked amazing food for us in our colourful Morris St kitchen. I had already booked my ticket back to India when he wrote me a long, eloquent email regarding my previous, rather undesirable visit to his country. He invited me to attend his wedding here on the first of April, and to offer me a better experience of India.

This was my first real exposure to the daily lives of people who aren’t in the tourist trade, and the people were astoundingly, amazingly lovely, generous, bright and fun.






I was not the groom’s only international guest, Vamshee’s friends Gintare and Oleg from Lithuania and Marcel from Germany also attended and we stayed at a hotel that cost roughly six times what I would usually spend on accommodation. It was great. The wedding ceremonies lasted for three days. The first day of ceremonies were held separately at the bride and groom’s respective homes, the second was at a reception centre, and the third was held more privately at Vamshee’s family home. I didn’t understand many of the proceedings although the other guests made a huge effort to ensure we were included and understanding as much as we could.






The wedding ceremony and preparations broke many Australian cultural rules, I loved it. We painted a mandala on the floor at the entrance to Vamshee’s home, sticky taped flowers to the walls, ate on the floor, talked during ceremonies, took calls during ceremonies, and they had a fire on the floor of the apartment! Most excitingly Sampretti invited us to her home on the first night of the wedding to have henna designs painted on our hands and feet.

There were hundreds of guests at the second day of the ceremony. The day started early, we were fed breakfast, lunch, and dinner and the food was amazing. At around lunch time one of Vamshee’s paternal aunts grabbed hold of me and said, ‘Kristy, you have now experienced a true Andhra Pradesh Telugu Brahmin Wedding!’ and with so many colours around me, smiling people, gorgeous saris, smoke in the air, and feeling swept with exhaustion, I realised that she was right, I had.

Our time in Hyderabad was overshadowed by political rioting and a curfew that excluded us from visiting most of the cities sights. We were visiting the planetarium when Vamshee caught wind of the riots, phoning us urgently, insisting that we come home. We did as we were told, found a rickshaw, and Marcel was entirely incensed with me for trying to negotiate a price in the middle of a riot (the driver wanted two hundred rupees; I knew it should be forty…). We saw riot police enter the city, literally by the overflowing truck load. Fortunately we were able to visit the incredible Golconda Fort before Vamshee knew about the curfew, it was incredibly hot and totally amazing.

I didn’t have the opportunity to take any exciting photos of the riots, maybe next time.