Picnics to remember

Our family picnics were a massive affair with several children and a small car. Once all the food ingredients were stacked in the garage and covered by a mat, and at the time of departure they forgot to load. Destination was gorumaisani barely 16 miles from our house, 10 by road and 6 by walk. This is the origin of river baitarani, which has a cows head carved out in the rock, from where a small stream of water coming out.We all walked except my sister who was carried in a palankin, a contraption with a bed tied with two bamboo poles carried by four men. The bearers commented that a dhangidi (young woman) is arried while my mother was walking with us. Even if we knew about the missing food stuff, we proceeded and purchased rice. salt and chilly from the adivasi village. Then we got green mangoes from the forest and cooking started with wood fire. The food was ready at 3 pm and was so tasty that I remember today.

While teaching in the college our secretary who was from industry dept used to take us to the bank of brahmani.He had a rifle, binocular and a fishing rod, which he used to give it to me, when he remains busy playing cards with our senior staff. I used to catch fish, watch birds, but no shikar was available in day time.

The khandadhar waterfall has a branch towards bonai, which cannot be termed as a waterfall but a series of small falls. While at rourkela steel plant, we had several picnics on this west side. Food is prepared at site starting at 11 am, and ready by 4 pm. In between I used to steal cut tomatoes, boiled potatoes to keep the hunger at bay. It was a different kind of pleasure with friends. By the time you are back it is late night.

I had a cousin who was a mine owner and used to invite germans and other intimate friends. I used to be invited so that I keep them busy with my unending stories and discussions on any subject in the earth. The most funny part is we used to get chicken that too desi in breakfast, lunch and dinner. The place had a lake with clear water for swimming and fishing.

There is a lake known as keetham, from where we were laying a pipeline for water.This was selected as our annual picnic. While one somaya was busy in cooking, I took his wife and all the small boys for bird shooting, and the birds were so clever that they never came within the range of my gun. On the way back all the tyres of the jeep got punctured, and we came back by bus. The food was fantastic, but got a scolding from my wife for the misadventure.

Once at Gauhati my deputy came with a proposal with a large contribution. I asked for the list of purchases and told him to add in kg for all items and found that it was 2 kg per head. I asked him to reduce to 500 gm since most of us can not eat more than 250 gm. This was as per hostel and jail standard. After a lot of arguments he accepted and there was a shortage of only one item bhendi bhaja, but was surplus in rice and dal. The place was an inspection bungalow on top of a hillock, and not a forest.

At Iran our whole group go to different scenic places by bus eat the food carried in a bus, take bath and photographs. These were published in our eil hamara magazine. The places we visited were devoid of forests and used to drink non alcoholic drinks. Visit to Shiraz, Abadan and Tehran cannot be treated as picnic, but we used to enjoy the complete open roads with no traffic, unlike in India or Europe.

Now a days people tend to carry food packets or dine in dhabas, but this is no pinic to remember.