Ananthapuram, visiting the real India.
About 80% of the population lives outside the cities. To see India, its essential to leave the cities and head to the country side. I went with Stanley Bhantu and Prithvi Rameswaram( Sonny) to a small village located about 200 km from Hyderabad named Ananthapuram . Two days earlier, I asked my friend Suhas why he booked a plane to Chenae instead of driving. He warned me the roads are not the way to go from city to city in India. He was right. My trip took me on some of the better roads of India, and some of the worst in the area.
Our morning started early to make the 3 hr trip to Ananthapuram, and we had to deal with the regular traffic leaving Hyderabad. Hyderabad has very few stop lights and even fewer stop signs. Speed limits are easy to enforce since the constant congestion of people navigating their cars through the traffic keeps everything moving at a snail's pace. In India, traffic lanes are more of a suggestion that the rule, and it is not uncommon to see cars straddling two lanes at the same time. The same rules apply to the countryside where roads can drop to a single lane or the road conditions are so bad, car try to remain in the center of the road to avoid being enveloped by a pot hole. Additionally, herds of goats, cow or other animals are often shepherded across the roads, even major roads between large cities. Add to this, oversized trucks, farm machinery and tuk tuks, India's roads are a challenge to drive.
To my Indian friends, this was a normal part of driving in India. I had become accustomed to this style from my many trips, but it still didn't encourage me to take a lot of photographs while being a front seat passenger on these roads. In this US, this trip takes about 1/2 the time with about 1/10th of the adventure.
We arrived to Ananthapuram about 10 am for a church service. Today, the villages were dedicated their newly built church. Apparently, I was a guest of honor at this event. Although we were told 10 am, the pastor at the village said the service was now delayed until 11 am giving me an hour to explore. I saw people bathing outside, a couple small children peeing the the brick lined aquaduct that ran through the village carrying waste into the unknown. Of course, this time of year, it mostly sat in the trench until the monsoons that will hopefully arrive in June.
I went around the village where I was quickly intercepted by some children and taken to a Christian families home where they too A LOT of pictures with me, tried their best to feed me, and introduced me to every member of their family.
At Emanuel's house, I met at least 40 people. Uncles, aunts, children, grand parents. The house was small, but clean, much cleaner than the village itself. Emmanuel's family was eating lunch, and they heavily insisted that I join them. If you know me, I love Indian food, but I hate Bombay belly. I heavily insisted that I was not hungry. During the thirty plus minutes at Emanuel's house, everyone took pictures with me. Different families and ages would gather around me for a photograph. Although the house did not have running water or an air conditioner, many of the villagers had a cell phone. The made sure to get pictures with the visiting American. I spoke with my friend Faizan about this later, and he said for many of these people, they will talk about my visit for the next twenty years. It was a big event in the village.
I posted a lot of these pics on Facebook along with many of the pics of the children that followed me around the village as my guides. The villagers and the children also insisted on me taking pictures of them. They were excited.
I told them I needed to get back to the
church and hoped to see them there. I wasn't sure if they could
understand me, and I was disappointed when the church service started
and they weren't there. At the beginning of the service, I worried it
would be a bust. It was Hot, and the tents provided shade, but they took
away the breeze. I didn't think the people of the village would come,
but I was wrong. By the end of the services,all 3 tents were filled, and
it was over 100 degrees outside.
It was easy to see God at work in this village and how God made the entire village a family. Stanley Bantu was instrumental in getting the funding for the roof of the church. The families in the village raised the money to buy the walls from their own pockets. This was a powerful testament of faith. It was difficult to get pictures of the church itself because of all the tents. I snapped a few shots before hand of the inside you can see below.
I loved the village and the people. They wanted us to stay for the rest of the day, but we needed to get back to Hyderabad to head to the rag pickers ministry. I hopped in the car with Stanley, and my other Indian friend, Prithvi Rameswaram to head back to Hyderabad. We had another three hours to get back. We were all hungry since it was already 1 pm, and we wanted to make a couple stops on the way. On my way out, I shook the hands of so many people and wished them a Wandanalu (thank you)
A quick shout out to my friend Arun for sedning me a text about mid way through the day that my pictures were coming through too blue. I checked my white balance and it was set for lfourescent lighting. I adjusted the white balance, and the pictures started coming through great. I couldn't peg why my pics were so dark until Arun sent me the text and jarred my memory. Because of this, I got some great pics of my boys in the village before I left.
Two last word on my friend Prithvi, I called him Sonny the whole trip because I didn't want to butcher his name. Many of you may think I assign Prithvi pronounced Prith wee the name Sonny, but I didn't. He gave it to me as an alternate to butchering his name. My second note is that Prithvi was an amazing guide to the village and driver along the trip. We wouldn't have found the village or the other stops along the way without him.
Finally, I'm working all this week. I still have a lot of content to cover, but I'm sure there are some questions people want to ask. Hit me up with your questions on Facebook, and I'll write a Q&A blog to answer them. Also, if you want to see more pictures from my trip, I've left my pictures open on Facebook for viewing
Our morning started early to make the 3 hr trip to Ananthapuram, and we had to deal with the regular traffic leaving Hyderabad. Hyderabad has very few stop lights and even fewer stop signs. Speed limits are easy to enforce since the constant congestion of people navigating their cars through the traffic keeps everything moving at a snail's pace. In India, traffic lanes are more of a suggestion that the rule, and it is not uncommon to see cars straddling two lanes at the same time. The same rules apply to the countryside where roads can drop to a single lane or the road conditions are so bad, car try to remain in the center of the road to avoid being enveloped by a pot hole. Additionally, herds of goats, cow or other animals are often shepherded across the roads, even major roads between large cities. Add to this, oversized trucks, farm machinery and tuk tuks, India's roads are a challenge to drive.
 |
| Goat herders shepherding their goats on the roads. |
Additionally, overloaded tuk tuks, cars and trucks add to the problem when you need to worry about someone falling off, not just out of the vehicle. In the country side, traffic laws are not strictly enforced, if at all.
I realized after my trip that I didn't have a lot of shots of some of the poorer roads we traveled. Taking pictures on these roads is an afterthought. Most of the time, we played chicken with a driver going the other direction to maintain the middle of the road only to split off at the last minute to narrowly avoid each other.
We arrived to Ananthapuram about 10 am for a church service. Today, the villages were dedicated their newly built church. Apparently, I was a guest of honor at this event. Although we were told 10 am, the pastor at the village said the service was now delayed until 11 am giving me an hour to explore. I saw people bathing outside, a couple small children peeing the the brick lined aquaduct that ran through the village carrying waste into the unknown. Of course, this time of year, it mostly sat in the trench until the monsoons that will hopefully arrive in June.
I went around the village where I was quickly intercepted by some children and taken to a Christian families home where they too A LOT of pictures with me, tried their best to feed me, and introduced me to every member of their family.
I posted a lot of these pics on Facebook along with many of the pics of the children that followed me around the village as my guides. The villagers and the children also insisted on me taking pictures of them. They were excited.
 |
| Emanuel's family, Emanuel is on the left. |
It was easy to see God at work in this village and how God made the entire village a family. Stanley Bantu was instrumental in getting the funding for the roof of the church. The families in the village raised the money to buy the walls from their own pockets. This was a powerful testament of faith. It was difficult to get pictures of the church itself because of all the tents. I snapped a few shots before hand of the inside you can see below.
I loved the village and the people. They wanted us to stay for the rest of the day, but we needed to get back to Hyderabad to head to the rag pickers ministry. I hopped in the car with Stanley, and my other Indian friend, Prithvi Rameswaram to head back to Hyderabad. We had another three hours to get back. We were all hungry since it was already 1 pm, and we wanted to make a couple stops on the way. On my way out, I shook the hands of so many people and wished them a Wandanalu (thank you)
A quick shout out to my friend Arun for sedning me a text about mid way through the day that my pictures were coming through too blue. I checked my white balance and it was set for lfourescent lighting. I adjusted the white balance, and the pictures started coming through great. I couldn't peg why my pics were so dark until Arun sent me the text and jarred my memory. Because of this, I got some great pics of my boys in the village before I left.
Two last word on my friend Prithvi, I called him Sonny the whole trip because I didn't want to butcher his name. Many of you may think I assign Prithvi pronounced Prith wee the name Sonny, but I didn't. He gave it to me as an alternate to butchering his name. My second note is that Prithvi was an amazing guide to the village and driver along the trip. We wouldn't have found the village or the other stops along the way without him.
Finally, I'm working all this week. I still have a lot of content to cover, but I'm sure there are some questions people want to ask. Hit me up with your questions on Facebook, and I'll write a Q&A blog to answer them. Also, if you want to see more pictures from my trip, I've left my pictures open on Facebook for viewing
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