My half saree function!

I’m an Indian so I celebrate Indian functions. like Diwali, Dasara, or even a Half saree function.

Meaning

A half saree function is celebrated when you’re 10 or 11. It’s kinda like a sweet 16 but when your 10 or 11.

Why did I go now?

We went for an India trip for three weeks to celebrate because we also have a wedding, my cousins half saree function, and games day.

Our flight trip to Hydrebad

First, we went to the airport and our first flight was at 10:00 pm and was from America to turkey. We had 5 hours time in the middle until the next flight, so my dad booked in an airport hotel room and it was like a luxury. They had snacks, cool drinks, and a gigantic bathroom. We were going to go to the spa that was there for a foot massage but we wanted to sleep really bad so we slept.

Then we went to the next flight which was a turkey to Mumbai which is in India. The turkey flight gave books with no pencils or crayons, common sense. The turkey food was so disgusting. We landed in Mumbai, the airport was so cool. It had pictures, cultures, and structure which looks real, like the photo above.

Last flight

We started the flight from Mumbai to Hyderabad, which is our destination. The flight was only 1 hour and we didn’t have any tv.

Our Hydrebad starting

We went to our cousin’s house to stay for 3 days. It was quite busy because we were shopping For our half saree dresses and we were very sleepy because of jet lag. We also had to try on all the dresses to see if all the dresses we ordered looked good. For me all of the dresses didn’t fit me, so they had to stitch it tighter again. We did that every single day and came back at night. On the day we were leaving we went to a place called Palamuru grill, which was very sad because ever since I heard that we were going on our India trip I wanted to go to the legendary barbecue nation because it is my favorite barbecue/grill.

Grandma’s house

After our lunch, we went to my grandmother’s house which is called Penamantra. It was really boring because there was no internet connection there. The next day my dance teacher came and we had to learn 4 dances for our Sangeetham and Mehendi in a week. We got 3 hours each day to practice. Each evening we went to Bhimavaram, which is the place where we used to live when we lived in India. Our cousin lives in Bhimavaram.

When we were in Penamantra me and my sister actually can do our half saree function together, and we did, but we have to have one of our own function to meet and greet everyone we’re close to. I had mine. I had to pray to god for ten minutes. I wore a pink that is topped with gold roses blouse, and a half saree that is pink and topped with Gold jewels.

Sujay’s upanayanam

The next day my mom’s cousin Sujay, had his upanayanam, which is another function that all boys do before they get married. It was kinda boring until my cousins came along. They had a giant balcony which had a big bench that was like a swing.

Sangeeth and Mehendi

The day after that we had our Sangeeth and Mehendi, which was when we danced with professional dancers and our cousins. They had our parents dancing too. There were different types of games for old and middle-aged people. It was so cool we had a big yellow and white lighting on top and a snacks place on the sides, which included milkshakes, dosas, and pani poorees, which is a portion of Indian food. We did some dances together with the professional dancers too. I wore a pink dress that goes from pink to blue and for the blouse, it is baby pink with layers of stitching on top.

Mangal Snanam

Before that, was a function called the Mangal snanam. First of all, I wore a doti pant, which was yellow with small red roses on top. First, we had all the old people pour water on our heads while we’re sitting in a big fake flower. Then all the middle-aged people poured water on our heads. After that, everyone poured water on our heads. 30 minutes after that, everyone one by one put turmeric on a leaf and rubbed it on our cheeks. We had our own cameraman so when all of this including the other functions happened the cameraman took pictures of what happened. before that, they took pictures of when everyone was throwing flowers in our direction. The pictures were so cool! The flowers were in the air in the pictures. At last, we bathed because we were wet in our clothes.

Main Function

The day after that was a function called the main function, where everyone came to bless me for being a young woman. It was really painful because my earings were connected to my hair and the earrings were really heavy because it was real gold with diamonds. I wore fake hair to make my hair long because I need to put flowers and jewels in my hair. I went to My main function, which was decorated with many different types of flowers and the flowers were arranged in semi-circles. While we’re getting ready with our own makeup artist. She actually didn’t, do that well. She put orange lipstick on our faces. First, all the pictures and videos that the cameraman took was shown on big green screens. Later on, I went on the stage and sat down on our royal chair and the bhramahas, who were people that blessed us instead of god sang songs that were related to god. I said the words that they told me to and put leaves with turmeric on the top of my head. After that everyone just gave presents and took pictures with us. I wore a blouse, which was green with a saree that was gold. I also wore a female mooskoo, which is a thing that you clip to your hair and it kinda looks like what you wear at an Indian wedding. I just changed my clothes in normal clothes. My ears were bleeding when i took my earrings out and my Fake hair was really heavy.

The big wedding

The day after that was the big wedding, which was the reason why we planned to do my half saree function now. The wedding was for my mom’s cousin Sujay. First, we went to the entrance, which was gigantic, beautiful, and had a snack bar with spring rolls and delicious creamy butter chicken with steamed and grilled vegetables. When we went inside it took quite a while for the bride and groom to come out of their rooms. When they did we went on stage and took a lot of pictures and the rest of the family came too. Later on, they did the special things that they do at an Indian wedding like Putting a curtain between the bride and groom to throwing flowers at each other. We went to eat dinner at the building because I was starving. We had biriyani and other Indian foods. In the end, we gave the bride and groom presents and the kids got to take all the junk food that the bride and groom didn’t want like, sugar birds to flower-shaped chocolates. Before we went, they had ice cream so we ate ice cream at the end of the marriage.

Ishu’s half saree function

My cousin, who was born on the same day as me had her function too, but it was different. She only had one function for her Half Saree Function, which was at a resort. First, we all took pictures and gave her gifts. Then, we all went to the place where we eat. The food was really good! I thought the ice cream was curd. Lastly, we went to the water park, which was my favorite part of the function. We went on big slides in tubes and danced in the water with the sick beats that they were playing. I thought that our function was a little bit better though.

Leaving at last

We were leaving at last. The bad part was we had to play in the pool for really less time because our flight was on the same day as Ishu’s half Saree Function.

Right before the flight, we had a photo shoot with the cameraman. It was pretty boring but the poses and the pictures turned out great.

We went on our flight from Hydrebad to Mumbai, which was boring as usual because since it was a local flight it didn’t have any tv.

Next, we went from Mumbai to Turkey which was fine and the roasted cashews tasted amazing.

Lastly, we went from Turkey to America, which was a fine flight because we got cool toys like a giraffe and a pilot made out of wood. later on, this very annoying girl kept jumping on our chairs and sitting in our lap and kept changing the channels that we were watching. Even when we went to the bathroom she kept following us so we had to push her away. Finally, the flight ended and we went home and slept immediately.