NIH India Picnic, June 18, 2005

The NIH India picnic was held on June 18, 2005 at the Nalin farm pond and picnic area in Fort Detrick, Frederick and was organized by Malancha Ta, Prafullakumar Tailor, Kailas Sonawane, Anjali Shukla and Suneet Shukla.

About 50 people participated. The day was beautiful; sunny, breezy, temperature in the mid 70s...perfect to be outdoors...for most of the people it was about 30 min drive through the beautiful green Frederick area, perfect to get everyone into the picnic "mood". We started out with a little bit of cricket....India's unofficially official game...kids went up to the slides and swings and guess who joined them....some of us, supposedly grown ups, who just decided to forget all the worries and be a kid again..... at the same time, some people were gearing up to light-up the coal and get the fire going for some juicy burgers....some first timers and some more experienced....the heat got going and the burgers started turning to beautiful brown....the new cooks excited at having actually been successful at the thing...the appetites soared while the burgers sizzled... some more volunteers made sandwiches in the meantime, two of us took over (sadly for them) the task of grilling the pizzas which didn’t turn out to be as easy as we thought...anyway, the lunch was laid out...a sumptuous spread of sandwiches, burgers, chicken nuggets, pizzas, samosas, muffins, boiled eggs, potato chips, soft drinks....wow !! we ate that heavenly meal and then it was time to get busy....or busier....there started a real hot volley ball match....and who would think, watching these players that they had at least not played in quite a while, if not never....there were others who were getting professional in Frisbee throwing and catching....man, we 're ready for the Olympics next time!! Although it was hard to get these people off their new found sport passions, we managed to finally start a round of the hot Indian favorite....tambola or housie as many call it....the prize money was huge...the stakes were large...$1 for the lines and, believe it or not, $2 for the full house... no one was taking it light...it was a serious affair....tension mounted and hearts raced faster thinking about who would be the winners....everyone was engrossed...until someone called out...."LIIIIINNNNNE", the referee checked his numbers... he had cancelled an extra number that hadn't yet been called out.....ooooooooooooo...." went everybody, several sighs of relief and the game resumed....the ones who won were elated, others lamented their bad luck.... then there  was some more food.... that number crunching got us hungry .... so it was time for some more burgers, sodas, chips, cake... with our appetites full again, guess what came next... our very own bhangra and indi-pop which got everybody shakin' and rollin'....people danced their hearts out and it was a lot of fun...... we then played "dumb charades"....that got really competitive... people were almost ready for a fight... a friendly one though!! Of course one of the two teams won and prizes were distributed... some more food.... takes energy for all this, don't you know.... it was about 4.30 by the time the dumb charades ended.... amidst all this excitement, most of us had forgotten to enjoy the beautiful lake there... so we all went for a stroll along the lake, and amidst dozens of geese... it sure made a pretty sight.... we took pictures by the score.... it was nearing 5 and well, was clean up time.... everybody helped clean up the place, a scene of real camaraderie... the left over food was “auctioned”.... each item went to the first caller who called for it.... goodbyes and "see you soons" were exchanged.... and back drove the cars to where they came from, with many a heart happy after a day well spent.

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