43. South Indian Weddings // Dheeraj Varanasi

Wiser World

In this episode, my guest Dheeraj Varanasi and I talk about some of the basic rites, rituals, and traditions involved in a traditional South Indian Hindu wedding. There is no way we could cover everything, but this covers many of the essentials, and is designed for non-Indians who know little to nothing about these weddings and want to learn more.

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This episode is sponsored by Stride K12 Powered Schools. For more information, head to K12.com/wiserworld.

A transcript for this episode is found here.

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Vocabulary from this episode with some links for further information and images:

Jeelakarra-Bellam - cumin and jaggery paste tradition

Mangalsutra - thread tying

Saptapadi - 7 steps

Twin Star System Mythology

Sindoor - sometimes called Vermillion, this red powder is often used in Hindu traditions, and is sometimes placed along the hairline of women to show they are married.

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Bio on Dheeraj

I am Dheeraj Varanasi, hailing from Hyderabad, India. I am a research engineer by profession trying to blend academic research with always short-on-time industry. I am currently working at Leica Biosystems, Germany as Sr. Blade Engineer, in the domain of healthcare and cancer diagnostics.

I moved to Hungary in 2016 to pursue my PhD in Materials Science. I defended my thesis in 2021 (Summa Cum Laude) followed by a post-doctoral position for 2 years at Academy of Sciences Hungary. I published in total 11 scientific papers and have submitted a patent application (submitted, it's a long process :P).

I am an avid traveller, having been across the whole of Europe, Morocco, parts of the USA totaling to about 31 countries to date. I am a sports fanatic especially for football, tennis and field hockey and try to support my favorite teams/athletes by traveling to stadiums across the world.

Besides work, I play tennis on the weekends and am learning Violin. A small pipe dream is to play as a street performer someday and donate whatever I collect for charity.

I read a lot on History, science and politics and am confident to hold conversations in 5 languages.

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