Eid Picnic

Nobody has an Eid party the way we had today. Belated as it was, around 40 of us motored down to Chhota Kashmir, a popular picnic getaway at Aarey Milk Colony in Goregaon for what was to be a combined celebration of Mumbai’s monsoon.

Exploring 'jungle land' 

To top it, this was to celebrate Yusuf Rassiwala’s birthday as well. Effectively, we had three celebrations for the price of one!
It got even better after that. We had some unexpected 'guests’ – Shekhawat’s daughter, Santosh Tyagi’s three lovely grandchildren, Rukhsana Khan’s daughter, Mallika Kagzi’s sister and Manisha Kolhe’s two children – all lively youngsters, joining to cheer us on and make our day.
The food was only incidental. Of course, Shekhawat had taken pains, together with Mallika and Arun Patil in organising pre-packed biryani (both veg and non-veg)

Yusuf Rassiwala

and Banoo Apa had come up with a huge container of special sheer khurma which was polished off in minutes. There was also a variety of snacks and refreshments, but what mattered most was the madness that gripped everyone from the time Bijoy Gupta started belting out his

Feasting on biryani and sheer khurma

brand of hilarious Bhojpuri-laced ditties. Siba Prasad Maitra, a trained singer in contrast, pitched in with a medley of popular Bengali numbers, the Hindi equivalent of which was rendered in chorus by half a dozen ladies. And then, there was the resonating timbre of Yusuf R singing ‘Ya dil ki suno, duniya walo’ a la Hemant Kumar. Mercifully, there was no antakshari, no Housie and no silly dancing.
Before the singing session, some of us ventured out in the wilds through the thick undergrowth and slushy pathways for photo-ops. Luckily, it did not rain. It was dry even when we went out boating, unlike previous occasions when we were drenched to the bone due to intermittent showers. In fact, the weather was unusually kind – cloudy, with a gentle breeze – neither warm nor chilly. What more can anyone ask for on an occasion like this? Stand by for a slideshow of the day’s highlights tomorrow.
Kiran Prakash:
Oh, what a wonder! Nice to feel your appearance Blog Monster after 20 days. And what an appearance -- with a bang. It seems you have now decided to appear on special occasions only. Last time it was on completion of 2000 blogs. We would love to see you more often. We enjoy your reporting, interesting and factual. We all enjoyed the Eid picnic. Celebration of Yusuf-Bhai's birthday on the hills was an icing on the cake. No picnic is complete without Bijoy Gupta and Maitra-ji. Thanks BM once again. Please do appear as often as you can.
Siba Prasad Maitra:
This was my first trip with club members and that too associated with two special occasions: one, post-Eid celebrations and the second, the birthday of our beloved Yusuf-bhai. In one word, the trip was FANTASTIC -- enjoyable and excellent. The biryani was also superb with two chicken leg pieces, beside sheer khurma from Banoo Apa. My thanks to all members for such a beautiful environment. It was just like a family get-together. Will look forward to many such occasions. Thanks Kiran-ji for mentioning me in your write up but I will always remember how important your presence was along with that of Mr & Mrs Bose, Mr & Mrs Babani and Mr & Mrs Gupta. These are a few names but all were very important.
Dilip Babani:
The picnic was very very nice. All members enjoyed. It was more like a family picnic. We celebrated Yusuf-bhai's birthday as well. The atmosphere became very emotional when he sang a touchy song. Even Maitra-ji sang a song in Hindi and Bengali. Mallika-ji had ordered very nice chicken biryani and veg biryani and she brought nice tea also. Banoo Apa made nice sheer khurma. We enjoyed the boating. Nice fun. Hope we can have another picnic at Lonavala very soon. God bless the Big Laaf family. I request Shekhawat to make nice arrangements for Lonavala so that all members can enjoy the monsoon rains, thick fog and the waterfalls there.
Siba Prasad Maitra adds:
I just forgot to mention that Blog Monster deserves a big 'Thank You' for doing a fantastic job and starting the blog again. Excellent photography with inspiring write ups. Please continue to write.
Lt Col Angad Singh (from Mohali):
Our BM was off for a pretty long time. This reminds me of an incident in the Army. Way back during operations in the Battle of River Basantar, in 1971, a tank regiment was required to cross a minefield created by the enemy. Col (later Lt Gen) Hanut Singh was commanding the regiment. No equipment was available to clear the minefield. The Commanding Officer (CO) ordered that no one should open the radio during the operation. The 'radio silence' would be broken by the CO only. He was a religious type person. He went into samadhi. After nearly half an hour, he emerged and broke the 'radio silence'. He declared he would lead from the front and all the tanks should come in line after his. No lights were to be switched on. The CO was leading and all the tanks followed. All the tanks crossed the minefield without any casualty. This took the enemy by surprise and the Battle of River Basantar was won! Similarly now, our BM has broken his silence after a long time and emerged stronger. Wish him all good luck. He should be more active as he is rejuvenated now.