First Wandering in Patancheru

Pantancheru, Andra Pradesh, India 01.15.11

It is sunny and warm here - about 81 degrees Fahrenheit - a great reprieve from Minnesota winter! So a walk gave us an excuse for some exercise and an attempt to get Oliver back on his napping schedule. He always falls asleep when in motion, whether in a baby wrap, a back pack carrier, or a rickshaw.

Here's some views of the ICRISAT headquarters and test fields:

We walked into the village, taking the 45-degree choice of streets at the first intersection we encountered. It is quite funny to watch passing motorists craning their necks to look at us - mutual entertainment. The festival of Sankranthi was being celebrated - a kite-flying festival. In addition to a multitude of kites in the sky, villagers decorated their sidewalks and driveways with colorful designs, done similar to sand-painting.

Enjoying fresh coconut, after drinking the water. The coconut was soft & chewy - and deliciously refreshing.

We ate lunch at a wonderful restaurant - the food was so spicy and rich - yum! Oliver was carried around by one of the waiters while we ate. On the way home, an ice cream wagon stopped by us - too good to resist.

Later that afternoon, we ventured out for a walk to the village to explore the local shops and check out the Sankranthi festivities. There were meat markets (genuine meat markets, not the slang version) complete with severed goats' heads and hanging carcasses. Several other stores were also open, but we chose to keep our walk's purpose to discovering the "neighborhood".

Sankranthi sidewalk art

Kite-flying on the rooftops

Meat Market with live chickens

Proud goat owner

View of the street we investigated

People in this village are more openly friendly than in Delhi, bringing their children out to meet us and running to catch up with us. Telugu is one of the predominant languages here. Its a visually beautiful language, which of course has me intrigued. I hope to find a Telugu calligrapher here - or a sign painter.

Telugu writing

Just plain beautiful - a photo begging to be taken