The Summer Picnic is the second most eagerly awaited event in UK Konkans’ Calendar. This event was planned about 4 months ago hoping gods of the sky would not play spoilsport. Fortunately, Sunday, 16th July 2017 turned out to be exceptionally warm and the rain stayed away in Bushy Park near Hampton Court in London.
The organisers gathered well before 10am to reserve the location and set the place up. Over 120 people turned out from various places of Greater London. Children, who are usually confined to 4 walls, were raring to go in the open park which had beautiful deers allowing children to touch them.
This was the first major event under the leadership of Sheela D’Silva who is the second female president of UK Konkans in its 12 year history. Sheela welcomed the gathering and Tom D’Souza invoked God’s blessings on the attendees, their families and friends.
Specially prepared Povva (beaten rice) was served for breakfast.
Guests were divided in to two teams – Purple and Green. The team chose UK Konkans youths-Royceston D’Souza and Glenish D’Silva as the captains of Purple and Green Teams respectively.
Dodge ball was the first game for the morning inviting both young and old to play as one group. The highlight of the day was mixed relay for the children aged between 4 to 15 years. 4-6 years carried lemon on the spoon to other end, 7-10 year olds were ready with 3 legged races, and finally it was 11- 15 years olds fought it out to reach the finishing line.
Mixed relay for adults was more serious when both genders competed in running, balloon between the head and blind folded scooter race.
For the first time in UK Konkans picnic, Kho Kho was introduced for adults.
Delicious Biryani with homemade beetroot raita was served for lunch. Home-made Faluda was the special dessert prepared Mr & Mrs Ivan Rodrigues.
Post lunch, the Horse Race game which provided immense fun for children and at same time was also good fund raiser. Tug of war was conducted for men, women and children separately.
Finally, two games of Indian rural game “Lagori” (hitting 7 tiles with a tennis ball) was played.
The organisers decided that the Purple group won most points, but both teams were facilitated with prizes.
Due to large number of participants, some of the games could not be played within the time. As the sun was setting and clouds were eager to show their presence, the day ended with vote of thanks.
In all, the picnic was package of great weather, fantastic fun, excellent location, superb food/refreshments and most importantly a loud and cheerful crowd.
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