Day 6- So Much Family

We woke up nice and early this morning, got ready and headed out to Krishna Prasad mama's house - another uncle- for breakfast. Once we got there I didn't see the lavish home I expected, instead I saw a quite nicely furnished apartment, where he and his wife lived and at the time their son, Mauria, was there. We got along very well, especially because he was into the business of renewable energy in Western Europe and I am part of a Renewable Energies club on campus and have done some research. After a typical Telagu breakfast, dosa, idli, coconut chutney, and finished with a coconut dessert (diamond sweet); my brother, Mauria and I went down to the street until I finally realized where we were going. They were only staying in the apartment until their house was finished remodeling. After getting out of the heat again, we went back inside where they had lost power, which was common anything we got to anyone's house, and we said our goodbye's and went on our way. Next we visited that mama's Engineering College. He owned 9 in the state and the system was well known in the area. I went to the school with some lofty expecetations off of what they told us. I left wholly disappointed because the schools were not at all what I had come to see in American schools. They were very basic, containing no more than what was absolutley necessary. The dorms were 6-story concrete buildings with no designs, the actual school was one large concrete building. After meeting the dean of the school, and him showing us every courtesy possible because we knew the owner again, he showed us a couple of classrooms. The ones he showed us were just long rooms of long lines of computers, and thats all. It reminded me of a vertical version of Cerritos Community College, without the aesthetic qualitites of the plants outside it. Apparently, this is what was considered good in India, because the sole focus of most people there is that the education is necessary and no distractions are available. (Later I plan of going on a tirade of education in India). Also, important to note, everyone was still required to wear uniform, I haven't done that since elementary school, and even then it was more relaxed than what they had.
After that we went to Veinu thatha's house (he is actually a great grand uncle to me). When we bought the house so many years ago it was was less populated than the two neighbors he has now and the land area was pretty big. Once we got there only ammama (actually great grand aunt) was there, she offered us freshly made peanut brittle. So fresh that it was still soft and malleable. Then she put a plate of the most sour mango I have ever tasted, so sour that I couldn't eat more than one bite every 5 minutes or so, even with the salt and chili powder- which is apparently the way my mom likes it. Outside, they decided to put in many fruit plants, herbs, and even a lily pond near the entrance. The garden was immense in terms of the choice in food, from huge jackfruits to guavas to basil on the side. After leaving their house we went straight to her son's house near the coast.
Narsimha thatha (actually grand-uncle but is only 42 or so) had a very nice house, 3 stories that had a view off the balcony as shown in the picture. The house was custom built and was obviously organized by a very modern minded architect. Him and his wife put a lot of work into the planning and made very good use of the area they had (a quality present in many Indian homes). I've noticed American houses have pride in how much open area it can enclose, but Indian homes are powerful in the sense that they are small yet allow the room to feel large. Also, most of the artwork was supplied by Jaya ammama (his wife); it was beautiful, a modern take on the faces of buddha. After dinner there and meeting their kids, 14 and 12 or so, we went back to the house and got packed to move on to the next city. On the way to the train station we stopped at another of my mom's cousin's, Subha aama, apartment to say hi. What I especially remeber from there is the grand daughter they had, and how cute she was, also the bada milk (almond milk) that was addictive. After she stalled us there, our fear of missing the train scared us too much so we left. We took the train for a few hours and got to Bhimvaram where we met one of my dad's cousin. At the time our train got into the station it started to pour. After rushing back to their house we changed, ate some really good food, chana masala with onion and pickly, it was very basic yet amazing, had some water (regret that) and went to sleep...