We are bound to visit so many towns, Cities, Villages, States and countries.
A few we remember for our life time. A few we never want to remember anytime.
One beautiful small town in West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh,
which I shall never ever forget is called PALAKOLLU. This is a small town on
the banks of river Godavari. I was living in Andhra Pradesh for nearly three
years since 1982. I was stationed in a place called Guntur. I was not knowing,
Telugu the local language in 1982 when I moved to Guntur. But in a span of six
months i became quiet fluent in the language at least to speak and understand.
I had the opportunity to travel to various places in coastal districts
of Andhra Pradesh like Nellore, Chirala, Singaraya Konda, Tanuku,
Vijayawada,Tadepalligudam, Sattenapalli, Tenali, Narasaraopet, Eluru,
Rajamundry, Kakinada etc. But the opportunity to visit Palakollu came in the
form of a marriage invite. One of my classmates was getting married in
Palakollu sometime in the early 1983. Thus we were all told to attend the
wedding in Palakollu on that particular day. There was a group of six to seven
boys who all joined together in Guntur railway station in the morning. We took
a train to go to Palakollu and reached the destination around 1 PM.
We went to the station master and told him that we had come to attend so
& so’s marriage. The Station Master asked us whether we represented the
bride’s party / bride groom’s party. When we told that the Bride Groom was our class mate, his total approach towards us changed. We were given a
bench to sit, the best he could arrange in his small station. Then he
immediately went to call the bride’s father stating that Bridegroom’s friends
had landed in chaste West Godavari Telugu. He then told us that a bullock cart
was on its way to pick us up.
We were then taken to the bride’s house. We did not know that Telugu
marriages were generally performed in the night and guests especially from
bridegroom’s side landed up only in the evening. We were told to wait for a few
minutes and then served with tender coconut water. We were then told that fresh
rice was being made for us to eat. After a rich Andhra Bhojan we were told that
we would be taken to a cinema theater to see a Telugu movie.
We had the fortune of watching one Krishnam Raju’s movie. Generally in
South India ladies do not sit by the side of male members ( at least then) in
busses, trains and especially in cinema theater. In Pallakolu, a girl was
sitting and watching the entire movie by my side without any fuss.
Once the movie was over we were taken back to the Bride’s place and shown
beautiful rooms to get freshened up. The type of bathroom so lavishly built and
accessories there made me to wonder whether we were in some star hotel. Nice perfumes,
soaps, hair oil etc. were on the shelves. We were made to help ourselves.
When we entered the marriage hall we could see some of the most
beautiful girls all decked up from head to toe in gold. There was not a single
girl without the OTTIYANAM (waist band made in pure gold!!). There were damsels
with golden anklets (In South it is still a taboo to wear gold on the foot!!).
Lavish display of wealth from land giving out golden crop was visible
everywhere!!
In the late evening my friend, the bridegroom landed with his whole
family. He was sorry that he was not there to receive us when we reached there.
But we told him that we had the best reception which anyone could have ever had
in Palakollu in his absence!!
Thus unknowing the local culture and custom we landed in a marriage party
much earlier than the anticipated arrival time. We were treated very politely
and taken maximum care by the bride’s party. We were made comfortable and made to enjoy the local hospitality to the
fullest possible extent in Palakollu !!
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