PICNIC PARTY

Cutting of vegetables.

Playing cards as Kiran & Susil looked on.

Time for lunch.

Another picnic spot.

APicnic Party:

The Picnic party initiative was taken by doctor parida & doctor patra for organizing the family picnic amongst those who were close to one another and without ego. This picnic site (photo) of Jaraikala of Sundargarh district was chosen by the leaders. But this site for picnic has become risky due to wild animals including human beings. There was no mobile phones, no mineral water hence we used to enjoy the whole day at the picnic site and in the bus. For this Picnic we hired a bus from Deepika School for that year picnic at Jaraikala arranged by doctor parida.The group consisted of bhabani,jaikrishna,subash,prodosh,susil,sanjoy,kiran,deba,sadasiv,padma,soroj, sanjib and their wife and family members, now they are all retired and have become grand fathers and grand mothers. Those were the best days of life for most of us. There was ‘no show’-(phutani) business nor any talks about money, cars and apartments. But of late people go out for picnic but get disturbed due to mobile phone calls from place of work or from relatives and friends. No one carry a camera as it has been replaced by mobile phone with inbuilt camera. Those were the days of non alcoholic drinks in the form of squash or lemon water. We used to drink even river water direct but neither had gastroenteritis nor jaundice.

I had a yashika camera brought by my sister from America. Those cameras were not made in China. A reel used to cost a lot plus the washing and developing charges were much more. Only one studio –madhukar at old rourkela.Subsequently three photo studios came up in the sectors. House wives used to wait eagerly for the Rourkela cold winter to arrive for the annual picnic. The picnic sites were Jhirpani,Sector 20 park on the banks of Koel river, Fruit garden,Jarikala, Khanda dhar,darjing,Sector 2 hill top,Vedavyas,Mandira Dam, sector 14 hill top and few more but less famous spots.

As winter approaches the old dusty and foggy memories of those cold winters of Rourkela, the annual family picnic flashes in my mind once I review the old photographs. As I try to break through the spider webs and come out of those bygone days more webs and dusts cloud my memories. Hope some of the members of that picnic party who have a FB account may love to watch these non digital photographs taken by an amateur photographer-sanjoy.Thank you friend.