Small towns and the likes..

The fun part of the trip is to be in a small town (ok, so i am out on a trip.. for a family function).. i have stayed in a village .. my family's ancestral house was in a small village in kerala. We used to visit that place every summers as children... it was an awesome place to be at.. no electricity.. a huge ground to play with a house smack in the middle.. a well.. no gas stove (a chulha)..and a forest(thats what we used to call it) surrounding the ground... it had jackfruit, mangoes, coconut etc trees..And oh we had this pool.. which had these steps leading into it.. the olden days type of pool!!!

So coming back to this one.. I am currently in a small town in Andhra called Samalkot.. its near Kakinada.. it would be probably be about a few kms.. 10-15 odd perhaps!! Thats it.. thats the length and breadth of the town!!

In the morning one awakens because of the huge amount of noise made by hens!!!! The house i am staying in is quite modern.. its been renovated.. pretty much like any of our houses!!

Its fun to roam around and see how the town is... the snack shops (hot chips shops its called)are these one box kind of a structure.. with a glass panelled table enabling you to see all the snacks... and a guy seated behind that!!!

We went to Kakinada the other day.. which is the bigger town.. the main market is one long road.. it has its titan shops and all.. we were in search of a beauty parlour.. an extremely funny or weird thing we discovered.. there is this one apparently very famous beauty parlour there.. for bridal make up they charge 10K!!!! And just for you to compare, Lakme charges 5-6K which includes trial session!!!!! I was zapped. For mehendi (henna), they (local parlour) were charging some 2.5 grand for the bride.. and to top it they wont let you select the design.. I was stumped!!! And said as much.. the lady literally showed us the door!!!

After this extraordinary experience we went hunting for parlours.. one person gave us some directions and off we went.. we got lost ..had to ask a few people.. the funniest bit was we bumped into these people (who we asked directions from) again as we were lost.. and they gave us directions, the shopkeeper of the shop near where we were standing overheard us and gave directions, the other customers at the shop also gave us directions!!!!!!!!!! And then one lady gave us directions from her terrace.. and actually came to down to tell us the right way when she saw us taking the wrong direction!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The level of interest and helpfulness was totally a strange experience coming from a bigger city where nobody bothers really!!! Strange but quite nice an experience!!!

The post is not complete without mentioning the food!!!! The food here...... the amount of chillies they use in their food is no joke!! By the time you finish eating, you are literally on fire.. smoke coming out of your ears.. tears intermingled with sweat streaming down your cheeks.. it is HOT!!!!!

2 more days to go before am back to the sinful and the "cosmopolitan" big cities.. where no one pays attention to anyone.. Am i saying i want to live in a small town...am not sure!!!!! But its an experience for sure.. and all of us should undergo it sometime or the other in life!!!