Wedding time!

On July 14th the whole group left the house at 2pm. There was a lot of rushing around to accomplish this: lot's of suitcases, people, kids, grandmas, last minute reminders and things to stuff into the bags. My SIL started numbering the bags, hoping that this would make it easier to take care of them... she got to 8. My FIL was already in Tirupati and would meet us there.

Some of us and the bags at the railway station.

A. had arranged for 3 cabs to take us to the railway station and suddenly there was a cab too many, but that just meant we could all go comfortably. 8 people left from his place and 8 more would meet us at the railway station. Traffic was smooth and an hour later we arrived at the station. Then came the hurdle of carrying the bags to the platform... but our train was not even announced yet! So we sat around and waited. A. announced very proudly that this is how Indians travel, always allowing plenty of time for unpredictables that might delay you (since the train is the only thing on time in India, you HAVE to make sure not to miss it). During the waiting time my mom got her camera out and was taking shots of everything and everyone... which was a little embarrassing. Finally, the relatives arrived and we all got on the train. We traveled in sleeper 3 tier, but because not all reservations were made at the same time the group was scattered across 3 coaches. After lot's of seat negotiations, A's mom, grandma, grandma's sister, sister and cousin ended up together, my mom and brother together, A. and I together and his other cousins and the 2 servants were still scattered. It was quite hot in the train and my mom and brother looked quite uncomfortable, but they endured it well and did not say anything.

We arrived in Tirupati at 7am the next morning (an hour late) and my FIL was already pacing around the platform worried about us (he's always worried when people are late). When we finally put all the bags together we now had 17!! Which means there was a considerable amount of hassle to get the all out of the station at the same time. It was early morning but it was already HOT. A's cousins and us had planned on walking up the 12km to Tirumala but one by one people started dropping out. At the end only A, I and 2 cousins walked up. A and I went barefoot, and while that might seem like much, take a look at the pic where the guy is lighting up a camphor tablet in each of the 3500 steps... that puts things into perspective! I really enjoyed the walk, it was nice to have fewer people around and none of the mothers, it was a little break before the big arrangements to come....